Gundam SEED. The first Gundam to show in the 21st Century. It was a smash hit in Japan. Several things have occured around it. Some parodies. And a horde of fans. Yet...The show is just plain overrated. Nearly everything about it in my eyes is overrated. It also fails to capture any of the things that were introduced in previous Gundam Chapters and failed to capture any feeling of originality.
Ok. Here we go.
SEED starts off in a colony called Heliopolis. This is where Kira and his friends are currently attending school in. Suddenly, however, ZAFT attacks the colony for the express purpose of gaining what have been called Gundams which were being produced by Morgenroete for the Earth Alliance. 5 prototypes were produced. ZAFT actually manages to steal 4 of them, but circumstance has led Kira Yamato to pilot it after also having realized Athrun's joining ZAFT. And so this is where SEED kicks off. I'm not going to say any further so as to not spoil the show for any interested party. (Note: Some of my complaints will reference the later parts of SEED, so please, you have been warned.)
For a start this all sounds good. However, the start is too much like the original MS Gundam with a high amount of 0083. The problem with this is the fact that they did nothing to make it in anyway original. Not only that, the entire course of the episodes look like they've been torn out of previous members of the Gundam saga. And a good amount of times, this cloning of events doesn't come close to how good they were in other the rest of the saga. A high amount of it is unoriginal. And it is blatantly obvious. But that's not the only problem.
In the case of the characters, they may seem interesting at first, but they soon lose their flare later into the show. They become uninteresting later on, and their development seems to be pointless save for maybe Athrun and Cagalli. Also, most of the characters who aren't the "main" characters lack any sort of development at all. Heck, a good number end up as just named grunts so that the Gundams could have pilots. Seriously, Kira just also ends up being perfect later into the series, lacking any flaw that would make a character interesting. Proof you ask? When he gets Freedom, he just aims his guns, the enemies stop moving, and he magically able to hit ALL of them without killing a single one. Truly, the most overrated character that has seen the face of anime. Also, Kira just ends up as Lacus' lapdog and she is able to sweettalk anyone into surrendering or believing her at some of the show crucial moments. They end up as the perfect couple. A couple that would prove too perfect for anyone to like them. That said, at least Athrun and Cagalli managed to be somewhat interesting in their being characters and in their relationship. The politicians you ask? Most of their decisions are uninteresting, have little effect to the show, are ripped off, or are just plain stupid. ORB claims to be neutral all the way, yet they gave the Alliance the permission to have an ORB tech company make mobile suits in an ORB colony. That actually contradicts any claim of total neutrality. About the Antagonists you ask? All of them are portrayed as evil and the only ones that are portrayed in any light of goodness are the people with Kira. Honestly, that is a bad move in a Real Robot series, where all factions have their goods and bads. Here, there's a clear line between good and evil. Probably because the mentions of racism in SEED seem to be more along the lines of a suggestive theme than a message against racism. Rau Le Creuset seemed to regress from a caniving, conspiracal guy to someone who just wants everything dead for simple reasons. He suits a Super Robot show more than in a Real Robot one.(SRW W fixed that.:)) Overall, the characters aren't that good.
Now onto another matter, the mecha. You see, the first 5 Gundams seem to be interesting designs, but most others seem to fall back in quality. The Grunt MS are more or less rips or frankens of Grunt MS from other Gundam Chapters. However, some managed to get off interesting, nevertheless, unoriginality is blatantly obvious. Another note should be that Kunio Okawara had started becoming redundant as most of the Gundams present in this series are seemingly just rehashes of previous Gundams (Most notably the F91). Another note should be that they seem less interesting than the base mechs and that all of them seem to be lacking any sort of uniqueness. All of them possess Far-Range weapons save for the Sword Strike. On another point, the mecha depictions in the show are seemingly inaccurate to an extent. The mechs are portrayed to be able to do all those fast maneuvers and all that overrated flash on-screen. This has lead to the FALSE belief that SEED Gundams are better than the older series because they are faster. Now the problem with all that flash is that it seems less possible and should be part of the massive amount of hax in the show. Reason I say so? The mecha of SEED are freakishly heavy. Mechs that heavy should never be able to do such moves without HAX. Also, the amount of posing in SEED is just plain pointless. Heck, if the SEED mechs/pilots weren't surrounded by their HAX shield, midway into those poses, they would be shot by a Beam Rifle and die. My say on the mechs: All they are is flash and all that overrated crap done by them is just so that Bandai could sell more model kits. Heck, Bandai only cared for how much they would get out of their merchandise that the quality of the show was sacrificed for that simple reason.
However, as a personal statement, the main reason I feel that SEED was uninteresting was because of the fact that it was unfulfilling. A good number of times, I would have liked to see how the 5 Wing Gundams, and other mecha would do stuff to make sure that certain events never happened or how they would have made certain events/battles much more entertaining. Also, another problem is that SEED attempted to combine the good aspects of nearly every Gundam series to the point that the show lacked originality and failed (Kira should be an example. He combined everything good about a protagonist to the point that he lacked the one thing that makes a character interesting. He lacked any character flaw.). Here's a list of what SEED failed in:
- SEED failed to capture the hotblooded spirit of G Gundam. All the poses were pointless (All that to just shoot a Beam Rifle, shoot several cannons, or pull out a Beam Saber!?), coupled by the fact that they don't have any hotblooded quotes, and the fact that their mechs are realistic in the sense of being heavy and having paper armor. They'd die half-way through pulling out a Saber if they were in AC or UC.
- SEED failed to capture the epicness of UC. Probably due to the fact that the 3 Ships Alliance always saves the day like the superheroes that they shouldn't be.
- SEED failed to capture the interesting characters, MS, and background of Wing and X. The mechs lacked uniqueness, they were all highly realistic, the characters lacked depth and nearly all of them were uninteresting. The backstory also wasn't well done as well.
- SEED failed to capture the Romantic goodness of X and Turn A. Athrun and Cagalli's relationship wasn't really focused on and they focused more on Kira and Lacus'. Albeit, their relationship was too perfect and uninteresting for anyone to truly care.
- SEED failed to capture the main character of having a feeling of tornness like Turn A. Mostly for the fact that Kira doesn't have that feeling and just doesn't worry about such a matter despite him being a coordinator on the Natural's side early on and then the fact that he joins the TSA later on.
Nevertheless, every show has its good points. SEED comes out OK for a certain amount and some characters (Particularly Athrun and Cagalli) are somewhat interesting and well-developed. Other than that, most of the good stuff comes out of the fact that SEED would bring us Astray (Which, I should tell you, is leagues better than the main TV side) and SEED character theatre (The SEED characters are bext when making fools of themselves.). Another would probably be the fact that aside from some good designs, SEED could serve as a "What not to do when making a mecha anime guide" (Though this didn't stop Destiny from sucking even harder.).
While the mainstream says it's so good, I have to concur. The best thing I could say about SEED is that it was ok. But the show has a ton of problems. Expect a Destiny review sometime around.
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