Friday, May 8, 2020

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Part 5 Episodes 21-25


Determined to reach the neutral nation of Orb, the Archangel launches an all out blitz attack against Andy Waltfeld, forcing Kira to battle a man he has come to admire.  Meanwhile, tensions are riding high on the Archangel.  Kira and Cagalli’s growing closeness threatens the hold Flay has over the fragile Gundam pilot.  But Kira isn’t the only person Cagalli is having an impact on.  Following a brief skirmish, the young freedom fighter ends up stranded on an island with Athrun Zala.  With Orb in sight, will Kira and his friends finally find a measure of peace in this long war, or might the battle secretly follow them across Orbs borders?

It looks like we’re back to that familiar retread dance once again.  When Gundam Seed was nodding and paying omage to the original series in the beginning, it was fine so long as they did their own unique spin on things, which they did very well.  Recently though, it hasn’t stuck the landing as well and it doesn’t help that last time characters were starting to act like idiots thanks to the plague that is Flay Alster.  So did things get any better here at the halfway mark? 

I like Andy Waltfeld.  I think he’s a cool dude and a killer food critic and his death with leave a major impact on Kira going forward.  I cant help but think we should have spent a little more time with him though.  This goes especially for the romance he had with his Mobile Suit piloting partner, Aisha, who is supposed to be the Crowley Haman to his Ramba Ral.  I do feel bad for their tragic demise but I don’t feel like I knew Waltfeld or his love as well as the Ral couple.  Yeah, Waltfeld is great and all but this is one area Seed tried to lift from Mobile Suit Gundam and it didn’t turn out as well as they’d hoped.  Honestly I don’t know why I feel that strongly about it.  There was nothing wrong about it.  But like a lot of Seed itself, it’s not the original Mobile Suit Gundam and thus isn’t making the same full impact like that series did.  It’s trying and when it’s doing it’s own thing, Seed is fine.  Trying to go too close to the original source material is hurting it from time to time though and it needs to air on the side of caution, that’s all.

If anyone got the better end of the character development spectrum this time around, it was Cagalli and Athrun.  Pairing these two up and stranding them on an island together was a good move.  Athrun finally got to lighten up a little and have a couple of jokes at the uber serious Cagalli’s expense.  He still got serious with her, revealing why he’s fighting in this war and Cagalli was equally heartfelt in her response to the war overall and Orb getting involved despite its announced neutrality.  What more interesting is the setup and titling of their episode.  Two soldiers from separate sides, a guy and a girl, stranded and trying to get in touch with their respective forces while bonding…and the girl happens to be pretty cute?  Yep, if you didn’t need a further giveaway from the title, “War for Two”, this episode was a direct omage to the debut episode of Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team.  So it’s a different kind of familiar territory but I liked it nonetheless.  Cagalli once again getting mistaken for a guy because she is so tomboyish never gets old and it’s good that her fiery spirit got more of an emotional reaction out of Athrun as opposed to Lacus.  No doubt theyre setting up Athrun and Cagalli to maybe hook up later and that would be a better pairing for sure.

Cagalli ended up pulling double duty with both of our male leads.  When the pressure became too much for Kira, Cagalli was there with a reassuring hug and an open ear.  I really hope Kira can tell the difference between this kind of support and the emotional scarring disguised as romance that Flay continues to throw at him.  Though, are they setting up a Love…Square (?) between Kira, Cagalli, Athrun and Lacus in all of this…that would be a little messy (love triangles are tough enough unless it’s Macross).  Cagalli has clearly had a positive impact on the Gundam pilot, even joining him and Mu in battle in the new Sky Grasper fighter the Archangels got.  I don’t know if anyone could’ve guessed she was royalty all this time.  Cagalli being mistaken for a guy by Kira and Athrun is funny but not without merit.  While we’ve seen her in pretty dresses, Cagalli aint no Disney Princess.  Oh yeah she wants more than to be the pretty girl but she’ll do so by punching you in the balls repeatedly, that temper and all.  Still, it was Cagalli pulling out the Princess Card that got the Archangel to enter the Sanc Kin…sorry I mean Side 6…whoops, Orb, yes the Kingdom of Orb. 

Orb is gonna be an interesting area to explore.  As I started to joke about above, it’s less of Side 6 from Mobile Suit Gundam and more the Sanc Kingdom from Gundam Wing…except it wont allow in ANY Earth Alliance or ZAFT ships without good reason.  But Orbs leader, Cagalli’s father, Uzumi, has plans for the Strike he helped create.  He doesn’t seem as shifty as many other people in power in Gundam Seed, so what’s his angle?  Trying to figure this out and force Kira to play guinea pig again didn’t sit well with Murrue.  Luckilly, her inevitable love interest Mu La Flaga was there to be her support.  It also gave us their cutest moment to date as Mu gave Murrue a reassuring pat on the shoulder only to be warned teasingly he was close to a sexual harassment charge.  All in good fun and Murrue’s been able to smile a lot more when Mu’s around and she has a very, very pretty smile.

Lastly, Flay Time.  So question: what has Flay been doing on the Archangel since joining the military?  The answer is NOTHING!!! She doesn’t have a post, hasn’t been seen doing anything on the ship, no training, no interactions with much of the crew, NOTHING!!!  All she’s done is stay in her room with a vacant expression and occasionally trying to hit on Kira when Cagalli is pulling him back to the side of good.  Why the hell hasn’t Murrue or especially Natarle said anything to the girl who has contributed nothing to the Archangels daily operations other than take up space?  I know they know she’s still on board (Mu and Murrue discussed her not such a good idea relationship with Kira).  Is it wrong to say the only thing worse than being a disgusting racist character is being a character with no point to being on the show right now?

Well we pause Gundam Seed in a neutral nation with it’s own secret agenda and a secret ZAFT team ready to sneak in and cause some trouble.  The series has been a little iffy for a couple of segments now.  But hopefully the lessons have been learned and we’ll head into the second half with stronger directions and bigger aspirations.  See ya next time for the start of the second half of Mobile Suit Gundam Seed.

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