Friday, May 15, 2020

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Part 10 Episodes 46-50


The final battle between ZAFT and the Earth Alliance has begun but a much more personal battle is being fought in the middle of it.  Now united, Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala depart on separate missions to stop the insane wishes of Rau Le Crueset and Patrick Zala.  Murrue faces her former first officer Natarle.  Mu risks everything to protect the woman he loves and Flay, Lacus and Cagalli all make their final decisions about where their hearts truly lie.  The battle for peace begins…and it wont end without the sacrifices of those closest to the hearts of Kira and Athrun.    

Still reeling from a bunch of major last minute turn bombshells, Gundam Seed entered its final five episodes with a lot of ground to cover even though the premise was simple enough: Azrael and Patrick Zala had to be stopped.  It was a Gundam finale though.  And that means epic battles in space, a lot of bloodshed, characters lost, philosophies being shouted back and forth…and more extra shouting because that’s all certain characters were made to do.

The one character I’m most proud of in this entire finale is Natarle.  From the moment Flay came onboard the Dominion and she welcomed her hug, I knew the girl I wanted to like was going to get a proper good ending.  Well…she didn’t make it, sadly.  But Natarle made her choice to go against being the soldier who follows orders, no matter what it takes.  Instead, she gave Azrael the verbal smackdown he had coming and sacrificed herself and her ship to end that little creeps life.  Cause if anyone had to go in this finale…well it was three people-Azrael, Zala and Le Crueset.  It was a heartbreaking goodbye for Natarle, coming only moments after Azrael tried to blow up the Archangel…and Mu had to sacrifice his life to save his love, Murrue.  The beautiful captain lost her closest friends in this battle…so im glad she gave the order to rid the Cosmic Era of the slime that is “I always Win “ Azrael.

It was a manic race against time to stop Patrick Zala from firing his Genesis super laser and destroying the Earth. Surprisingly, the kill count for the good guys kind of stopped after the loss of Natarle and Mu in the final episode…well there was one other major death but ill get there.  I wont lie though, at one point I wanted good guys to just win because I was done with Azrael’s screaming in psychotic fashion Gundam Team and Rau Le Crueset’s psycho genocidal banter.  It can make anyones head hurt and makes me long for the days when the Zabi’s were a bit more…subtle by comparison.  Rau just kept going on and on about how he knew all about humanity and it’s penchant for destruction because he wasn’t hugged enough as a clone kid.  Rau really could have been something closer to Char than anyone else before if he hadn’t been given that last minute “I’m a Clone of Mu’s Dad” storyline and instead was made an opportunist looking to seize control of ZAFT himself for various, more interesting reasons.  In the end, he was just a screaming lunatic who will never be as cool or as remembered as the man who first dawned that iconic mask.  Mu said it best of Le Crueset, “He has no past, no future, and probably no identity.”

As for Athrun’s dad, his troops finally decided to wizen up and NOT destroy the Earth because that’s crazy talk.  In a very Shakesperean move, the demented, deluded and just plain insane ZAFT leader found himself gunned down by his own men before everyone abandoned the base.  Of course, even dying in poor Athrun’s arms, Zala’s last words were to make sure Genesis was fired and Earth was destroyed…yeah I’m not sorry he’s gone.  Basically, even bad guy who needed to go, got taken out in some very satisfactory fashions.  The best was Yzak finally getting a chance to tear into Azrael’s Gundam Team, killing two of them himself.  Never thought I’d say this but, way to go guy. 

Ok, time to talk about the last major death of the series: Flay.  The final five episodes finally saw her doing something military related as she became an officer on the Dominion under Natarle’s command.  At first I was really, really, REALLY looking forward to scowling at any attempts to get her redeemed before the end of the series.  But considering she’s spent time with Le Crueset and Azrael, Flay’s seen that her kind of dark crazy is way outclassed by others.  The more she said she wanted to get back to Kira and the others, I did believe her.  I didn’t at first because when Cagalli was telling Athrun about Flay and calling her “a good friend of Kira’s”, I scoffed because most of the reflective montage was of all the horrible, manipulative things Flay had done to him.  But Kira did get one final Newtype-esque chance to say goodbye to the girl who used and abused him. It’s also worth noting that Kira forgave Athrun and Yzak for the crimes he witnessed.  It’s not wrong to think he’d forgive Flay too…that’s just the kind of guy Kira is.  So, no real Flay bashing, even at the end.

Well with Le Crueset, Zala and Azrael dead, the war was pretty much over and done with so…then what?  Well, the series has a special 5 min OVA extended ending where we get to check in with everyone post Genesis.  Kira and Lacus are living on a beach with war orphans.  Athrun and Cagalli are together.  Flay, Miri and Murrue have all gone their separate ways.  And Yzak and Dearka are back with ZAFT in new capacities.  All in all, the finale was…sometimes good but other times sort of underwhelming.  Maybe because it was mostly screaming and explosions without the amount of emotional weight the show wanted.  The loss of Natarle and Mu was the major high point for me, emotionally.  After that, it was blow everything up using all the reusable animation possible.  Maybe I just couldn’t get past those last minute curveballs about Clones, Perfect Coordinators and mad men in masks.  Gundam Seed tried to do too much to stand out from what came before and in doing so, produced a bit of a mess with some decent moments and good character cap offs.

Which brings us to the very end…sort of.  How was Mobile Suit Gundam Seed?  It was…ok.  Overall updating the One Year War with Naturals vs. Coordinators worked because of the ethical and societal problems it addressed.  The series worked best when focusing on a pretty good cast of characters rather than trying to nod or pay homage to a million and one different Gundam tales of yesteryear.  Kira and Athrun were good leads, though I wish we could’ve had more time with Athrun early on in the first half to offset watching Kira make a million bad choices because of Flay.  The supporting cast was some of my favorites with Murrue and Natarle being the hottest commanding officers around; Mu being the cool big brother; and Kira’s friends getting better character arcs than Kira.  The animation was also a mixed bag.  Digi Paint Anime is hit and miss and sometimes it worked well when it came to mecha designs and the action on Earth.  In space, it was a little more miss as it looked like everything was sliding than naturally moving around.  The series hit its stride around the third act, then tried to go beyond overboard in the last act, resulting in a shaky finale that had its moments but overall felt like too much story without a total payoff.  But I didn’t hate Seed as a whole.  What I liked, I really liked and I think it’s a fascinating watch since it was the first new Gundam of the new millennia.

Final Score for Mobile Suit Gundam Seed is 7/10.  For new fans it’s a decent starting point, even if it is very, very familiar to veteran fans.  And when the show is doing its own thing and not trying to be an already told Gundam story, it does work a lot.

But, as we all know by now, this show was mega popular and was the first of the Alternate Gundam Universe shows to spawn a direct sequel…and man…I’m not looking forward to this.  But I’m committed and this is happening.  Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny starts Next Monday, right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.

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