Alright, this is it, the moment I’d been kind of dreading
since thinking up this crazy plan. While
Gundam Seed was a shaky but passable attempt to launch the Gundam Franchise
into the 2000s, Gundam Seed Destiny has a far less positive air about it. It’s not like this is hasn’t happened with
Gundam before. Zeta Gundam made big
strides for the franchise, including covering some very dark and heavy subject
matter…then came Gundam ZZ, which traded the drama for slapstick comedy in the
first half of its run. Seed’s sequel
doesn’t look to be repeating the same mistakes as ZZ…no it looks like its set
to make all new ones. And I’ve got ten
reviews to write about it. Sigh, here we
go. This is Mobile Suit Gundam Seed
Destiny.
It's hard to start this review off without going straight
to that good old feeling of “familiarity”.
The beginning of Seed Destiny isn’t a beat for beat retread of Seed…rather
it’s a beat for beat retread of Seed plus a bunch of other Gundam titles, most
notably Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory.
This is the second time in a row we’ve started a series off with a
Gundamjack, shouldn’t there be a crap ton of extra security around something
that powerful? And the perps of this
theft? Three brand new weird and hyper
violent experimental youths akin to those three psycho Gundam pilots under
Azrael’s command in Seed. Aeul, Sting
and Stella have that cocky attitude and the penchant for bloody mayhem (Auel
can even do gun kata cause that automatically makes him cool?). Stella stands out the most of these three
because she’s clearly meant to be Seed Destiny’s answer to famous doomed
Newtype beauty Four Murasame from Zeta Gundam…which means its only a matter of
time before she falls for our new lead character. Oh and there’s a new Char Clone in a mask
named Neo Roanoke…and he could be another Rau Le Crueset clone or something
else…I have a theory but I’ll hold onto it for now. Once again, the Seed franchise returns to the
well of Gundam ideas that worked in the past and is trying to smash a ton of
things together and hope that they work.
Instead, they stand out in the worst ways…the fact that it is as far
from original as possible and not a good start.
We do kick off the story from the ZAFT side of things,
which is a good change I think. We got
the Federation/Civilian perspective on a major war, so a series from the former
opposing side isn’t a bad approach. The
crew of the Minerva is a bit of a mixed bag.
Captain Talia Gladys seems formidable but I’m not a fan of her first
officer, Arthur, who just seems to bumble about the bridge. Then there’s Meyrin, who is the comms officer
and we hear her voice A LOT in each episode.
Even Miriallia didn’t give as much of a vocal play by play over the
intercom. Mey’s older sister, the very
cute Lunamaria, might have potential…but again that’s more so because she is
nice and actually part of the active Mobile Suit roster. Sigh, ok, then there’s Shinn. Never before has a Gundam series made me hate
a lead character so quickly. Notice I’m
not calling Shinn “The Protagonist” because in my eyes, he isn’t. Yes, he has a tragic backstory: he lost his
parents and little sister during the Battle of Orb and still carries around his
sisters cell. But Shinn is quick to
anger and lashes out at Cagalli several times, blaming her for a matter out of
her control. Shinn doesn’t want to
listen to reasons other than his own and the way he carries himself, I’m
shocked Athrun didn’t just punch him and I’m sure I’ll be saying that a lot
over these next two weeks. You know
what? This is bad, very bad. Shinn is our main character to follow for
Seed Destiny and he’s already the most unlikeable part of the show. Much like Flay Alster, I’m probs going to
start a section of each review dedicated for the stupid crap Shinn gets into…I
have a bad feeling about this.
We spent a lot of time with the new cast (sadly this is
their show) but we did get to catch up with some familiar faces. Cagalli and Athrun were right in the middle
of the action, though Cagalli got more than the short end of the stick. Now running the country of Orb, she’s far
less of a spitfire and more an uncertain leader. This is evidenced by her interactions with
ZAFT’s handsome new man in charge, Gilbert “Gil” Durandal. I don’t like this guy. I just know there’s something lurking under
that self assured smile. He reminded me
of Guin from Turn A Gundam, he’s got a play of his own on his mind and he
teasingly switches back and forth calling Athrun by his false name (Alex) and
real name…cause it amuses him? Cagalli
from Gundam Seed would more stand her ground against Durandal AND tear Shinn
apart for talking smack about her father and claiming she doesn’t know a thing
about loss or war cause she lives in Orb.
This is a far more fragile Cagalli…and I’m not ok with that. Athrun is hanging in there and it’s good to
see him back in the middle of the action again.
I’d actually say if he wasn’t playing Cagalli’s bodyguard, he’d make a
good Captain considering he got the Minerva out of a sticky situation when no
one else had a good idea. No sign of
Kira, Lacus or Murrue yet. We did get to
see Yzak and Dearka briefly. Theyre
still working together in ZAFT and Yzak’s face is fully healed now. They look good.
I will say the animation looks better than Seed, and a
good thing too. Everything looks shinier
and more polished, more a mix of Digi Paint and classic Anime techniques. I’m not too big on the design of the three
stolen Gundams but the Minerva and the Impulse are solid successors to the
Archangel and the Strike. The Impulse’s combination sequence is one of the few
fun call backs to classic Gundam, when they could do mid air conversions from
fighters to Mobile Suits, almost like a Super Robot. The Minerva just looks freaking cool with the
extended wings, I bet it could glide through anything with ease…if the right
person was at the helm. Oh and going
back to reborrowed ideas, Zaku’s are officially a thing for ZAFT now. They’re fewer in design atm, the GiNN’s are
still ZAFT’s main Mobile Suit of use.
But aces like Lunamaria, Rey, Dearka and even Athrun are getting to pilot
them. On the one hand, again, not
original. But it’s also good to see a classic
and beloved Mobile Suit get a new lease on life.
While far from a perfect beginning, Seed Destiny did
offer one helluva major development to throw a cliffhanger on. Sending the ruins of Junius Seven to Earth as
a declaration of revenge and/or war is bold and definitely ups the stakes from
anything in Seed besides the original Junius Seven attack. The question is, who is behind it? Is it a rebel faction of ZAFT? Is it this Phantom Pain unit that is wearing
Earth Alliance colors? Or is it the council
of old fossils and a young upstart named Djibril who are the main minds behind
Blue Cosmos? It could be the third
option considering Djibril’s thinking very far ahead to an armed response
against the PLANTS because why not. It
could be another faction we just haven’t seen yet. That’s a lot to throw in and I miss the days
when shows started off with just two sides trying to beat the crap out of each
other.
The premieres many faults aside, it’s all hands on deck
as the Minerva heads into battle. Will
we see Athrun get to reunite with Yzak and Dearka? Will Junius Seven hit (quite possibly
yes)? And where the hell is Kira and how
will he and Lacus get involved in all of this?
We’ve only just begun with Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny…deep breaths,
deep breaths…maybe it will get better.
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