Gundam AGE review

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE finally finished its run recently at 49 episodes. It has a unique storyline, which spans through three generations over 100 years.

So, what do I think of it after one year?

Well…meh. So many great ideas, but completely wasted.

BIG STOMPING ROBOTS!!

Story/Characters (Major spoilers ahead)

The basic storyline is that the Earth Federation is at war with the UE (Unknown Enemy, seriously? Couldn’t find a better name?), who were at first thought to be aliens or something.

And…surprise!! They are not aliens, but rather humans who were abandoned after the Mars Colonization project ran into too much trouble, so now the Vagans (as they call themselves) want revenge on the federation and take back Earth as their Eden.

Now, truthfully, the progression of the storyline is alright, that is to say that they didn’t really do anything really creative with the story. Most of the faults of the story come from the character portrayal themselves.

Though one thing does bug me is the fact that it took them about…37 episodes to humanize the UE. OH, COME ON REALLY??

Up to that point, we really do not have much of a reason to support the Vagan: they indiscriminately attack civilians; merciless and heartless characters fill their ranks (though they have some heartbreaking characters moments, it was too little, too late); even their mobile suits spell villain/evil all over.

Look at that soulless evil stare.

Hell, up to that point, we weren’t even sure if they even HAD civilians within their ranks, they could have been a completely militarized society for all we know.

It does not help that most of the sympathetic characters that die tear-jerking deaths are usually on the Federation’s side which only serves to demonize the Vagans. By the time we are shown the truly horrendous plight that the Vagans go through, it was too late and comes off as very heavy handed and forced.

So it just gives us the impression that the Federation are always the good guys no mater what.

Another horrendous episode is Episode 42, where we are introduced to Girard Spriggan (or however you spell it), a soldier who defected to the Vagans from the Federation, which provided a valid reason actually. The episode shows why she defected and joined the enemy and….

Yes, that's a girl.

What was the fucking point of it?

At least her mobile suit looks pretty awesome.

It’s not like she joined the main cast, she dies in the very next episode anyways. Nor would it have made sense to make join the main cast, when you only have 7 episodes left to the series.

So why was she there? Was it to show that the Federation was not that clean and shiny? That is pointless because by that point, we knew that the Federation was not exactly innocent since the First generation arc anyways. They did abandon the entire Mars colony to die after all.

Was it to help emphasize how stupid Zeheart was? He knew that there was a chance Girard might go out of control, and he still let her out to battle in a powerful mobile suit. Goddam idiot.

But just to make things fair, I'll bring a psycho, IE you, in case
I am in any danger of accidentally defeating him.

After she died, she was forgotten, and all that talk about her lover died because of the Federation and covered up amounts to nothing. No one was held responsible, and everyone moved on like normal.

Well, that was a waste of time.

So, storyline was so-so, what about the characters?

Before Gundam AGE was officially shown, I was intrigued by the fact that the story was going to cover three generations: from Flit Asuno to his son, Asemu Asuno, then to Flit’s grandson, Kio Asuno. But, I was also sceptical, how would they manage to flesh out the characters at all? Because remember, not only do they have to characterize the main characters without being carbon copies of each other, they ALSO have to do the same to the supporting cast as well.

After watching about halfway through, I realised how they dealt with the problem of characterization.

They didn’t bother with it. Or rather they did a terrible job of it.

What we basically have is an almost complete lack of character development for anyone except for the three protagonists, which is saying something, because they only get about a dozen episodes each to develop before getting into the final arc.

Worse still, is the way Gundam AGE treat their female characters, which is to say that they get nothing at all, or if you’re lucky enough to be the love interest of any of the Asunos, you either die for the purpose of plot advancement or get shallow development. What abysmal treatment…

Take for example, in the first generation, Flit’s love interest is Emily, and she does jackshit the whole time. She’s just holding on to Haro, wishing that Flit would not involve himself in the war and leave with her to settle in another colony, away from the war. THAT is literally her basic characterization, and pretty much all she does the whole time we see her.

The other love interest, Yurin, was basically set up so that she will die sacrificing herself heroically for Flit. Okay, granted that she was designed to tug at the viewer’s heartstrings in mind, which also sets up Flit’s bitter and vengeful-driven nature in his later life.

But she is adorable. LOOK AT THAT.

But, still you have to wonder that Yurin, who has half the screentime (or less) of Emily, gets better received than Emily, your characterization is pretty screwed up.

Hell, we don’t know anything about Unoa Asuno, who is Flit’s daughter. All we know is that she’s a medic and part of the Asuno family and….that’s about it.

I had to Google "Flit's daughter" to find out her name, she was THAT plot-insignificant

Ugh…

The protagonists fare slightly better. Slightly.

Out of the three though, Flit is probably the most fleshed out, but only because he was there from episode one. He goes from naïve and idealistic kid (who also happens to be the architect of a mass murder military weapon), to becoming a bitter and vengeful driven anti-hero, to finally fulfilling his role of a true hero.

It does not help that his whole life pretty much consists of people he knows dead at the hands of the Vagan, one way or the other.

Hard not to feel for him in this scene. Look at young Flit's face.

Personally, I found his role as an anti-hero very interesting to watch, due to the fact that for once, we can really see the effects a really prolonged war has on a character (as compared to the usual couple of years in the previous Gundam series). But his change from anti-hero to hero happens too quickly. It would have been more effective, in my opinion, if he was allowed to see the plight of the Vagan civilians and have a gradual change of heart. But, still, if anything, Flit Asuno was an interesting character to watch.

Asemu from the second generation onwards starts off idolizing his father and wants to live up to his name. He becomes best friends with Zeheart Galette who turns out to be a Vagan spy. So the two end up fighting against each other on opposite sides of the war.

CHAR CLONE ALERT

Asemu’s character revolves around his inferiority complex against his father and Zeheart. It does not help that he is not an X-rounder (this series’ version of Newtype pilots) thus making him a less effective pilot. At first.

Under the tutelage of Commander Woolf, Asemu learns to be himself (finally) and be a badass. He also gets a wicked sick pirate-themed Gundam in Kio's arc.

SUPA PIRATE PAILOTTTOOOO~~!!

However, this is a love-or-hate arc, as his attitude can get a bit annoying at times as he seems to be only concerned with topping his father and Zeheart, it takes the death of his mentor, Woolf to finally bring him around. That happens in the last two episodes of his arc, and then it moves to his son’s arc.

Um, yea. Great pacing guys.

I feel this arc is rather weak, the only noteworthy thing is that it shows Zeheart who remains the villain for the rest of the series (although he is not a great antagonist), and it shows Flit Asuno’s change into a man driven to exterminate all of the Vagans.

The third arc is Kio Asuno and…well, frankly, he is the least likeable in my opinion. I mean, there’s nothing really wrong with him: he’s a very kindhearted kid, but unrealistically idealistic, sometimes bordering on what-the-hell idiocy. Granted, he’s a kid, but still…

Grandpa Flit: Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...!

Some moments of idiocy includes: Grandpa Flit comes to save his ass so that they can’t capture Kio’s Gundam AGE-3, Flit distracts them and stays to fight (in an ancient Gundam AGE-1 which makes it pretty damn awesome!), Kio ignores orders to return, goes back and gets himself captured, rendering Flit’s efforts moot and almost getting him killed.

Another one was during his capture, the Vagans’ leader Lord Ezelcant wants to investigate the hardware of the Gundam AGE-3, obviously so that they can reverse-engineer the powerful technology behind it, but it’s protected by failsafe mechanisms. Only Kio can override it.

What does Kio do? Kio gives his override in exchange for some medicine in order to extend his love interest, Lu Anon's life by a few days. It was kind of him, but it was FUCKING STUPID. What did he think the Vagans were going to do with the Gundam’s technology??

Ok, she is REAAALLLLYYYYYY adorable though.

Sure enough, the Vagans make their own Gundam, Gundam Legilis, which beats the total snot out of the Gundam AGE-3.

Crotch shot!

Furthermore, Kio does not actually show his great piloting skills, the most powerful Gundam in the series is handed to him on a silver platter, because he is an Asuno, not because he is an incredible pilot. Granted, he has extremely powerful X-Rounder abilities, but his piloting skills are not that great. Hell, some of the side characters are much more badass NORMAL pilots, who for all intents and purposes, completely overshadow and outskill Kio, such as Seric Abbis and Obright, who took down much more powerful mobile suits in their own mass produced, albeit customized, mobile suits.

Obright: Remi, I'm finally going to see you again...
Manly-fucking-tears were shed.

It does not help that Kio basically goes around telling people to stop fighting, IN THE MIDDLE OF A FREAKING BATTLE. For some unfathomable reason, he only does this to the Vagan pilots, and disables their mobile suits. Nevermind the fact that the Vagan pilots are beating the crap out of your own forces.

This gives the illusion that Kio cares more about the Vagan casualties than his own Federation team. What the hell is up with that?

At least Kira Yamato was fair to both sides; he disabled mobile suits from both sides to stop them from killing each other.

The final arc consists of 10 episodes of all three generations working together to stop the war, and you know what? It sucks. It really does, I honestly did not feel anything for the finale. It was so lacklustre and uninspired that I wonder if the writer team only had the triple generation gimmick in mind and just got stuck there.

Just throw everything we got and shoot them all to hell.

Zeheart is a piss poor main villain who dies in the second last episode, his motivations basically goes along the line of “I must fulfil the dream of Ezelcant-sama, for the sake of the Vagans because I have no idea what the fuck to do without any orders.” Ok, fine, he’s a soldier who unfortunately does not or is unable to think long term plans for the sake of the Vagans. I can sort of accept that.

But Lord Ezelcant’s plan is…sheer what-the-fuck-ness.

He has a hot wife, you know why?
Corkscrew hair is a sign of a large manhood.

So his main plan of capturing Earth for the Vagans is false. Okay, that was unexpectedly fresh actually. What is his real plan? He wants to create a race of peaceful humans (okay), by killing off people with warlike/aggressive tendencies (wait, what?) by starting a war with the Federation (WHAT). I don’t know about you but won’t the survivors of the war be even more aggressive??

Survival of the fittest? Ever heard of that??

Well fuck.

I would like to put in some noteworthy supporting casts, but frankly, there are just way too many supporting casts and almost all of them are not even worth the time spent to write them down. They’re just very poorly represented.

So, exactly what is wrong with Gundam AGE? I personally believe that the three-generation gimmick is just badly implemented. Each of the generation has its shining moments, but 49 episodes is just not enough, if each arc had 26 episodes, then it would be enough to flesh out everyone and give them a chance to shine. 

But as it is, with all that cramped into such a small time frame, everything is a compressed, convoluted mess.

The short time frame also knocks the pacing out cold. Things simply move too fast, yet they still pointlessly dedicate precious amounts of time to characters that does not add jackshit to the storyline like Girard Spriggan, those two dumbass factions in Fardain colony, the Magicians Eight and the Phantom Three.

Yea, seriously.

Bizarrely, characters that should be integral to the plot seem to come and go, and their absence sometimes is completely ignored: Emily has nothing to add beyond Flit’s arc; Romary has none either after Asemu’s arc; Wendy adds NOTHING, she’s only implied to be Kio’s love interest, but nothing more and she has the least screentime out of all of them; Millais Alloy, the captain of the Diva battleship (a plot-centric battleship), disappears completely in Kio’s act onwards but no one says a damn thing; Largan Drace, a pilot from Flit’s arc completely disappears by Asemu’s arc; Asemu’s fellow rookie teammates in his arc mysteriously disappears without a word.

Graphics

For the most part, the graphics are fine. Or at least it averages out to fine.

I love the design of the girls, which is ironic considering how they treat them storyline-wise.

However, the character design can be erm, weird at times. How the hell does Dique Gunhale’s design (and by extension, his grandson Wootbit Gunhale) fit in with the rest of the world??

Seriously, how?

At least Dique's daughter, Arisa Gunhale is pretty hot.

It’s ridiculously jarring.

Some people were a bit critical of the hairstyles that were shown in the series, but personally, I’m okay with it. After all, you can’t have them in real life, so where else can you have them?

It's a hedgehog mullet with a fringe, with a ponytail...thingie.

The mobile suit designs were quite nice too.

Gundam AGE-1 is an obvious shout out to the RX-78, and I really liked the alternate modes that they featured in the story, with the special Titus and Spallow modes. It made a return in the last arc as a heavily armored badass form known as AGE-1 Glanza. Looks a bit like the Armored Mk-II in the UC timeline.

Looks pretty badass actually.

Gundam AGE-2 is a shoutout to Zeta Gundam, with a fighter craft mode. It was later upgraded to the Gundam AGE-2 Double Bullet with shoulder mounted cannons. When Asemu became Captain Ash of the Bisidian Pirates, he got a version of the Gundam AGE-2 painted in PIRATE colors, with a grappling hook, a chest mounted floodlight, a skull head crest and an eye patch!! This is my favourite design thus far. It’s freaking awesome.

LOOK AT THAT!!!

Gundam AGE-3 is by far my 2^nd favourite design, piloted by Kio, most likely inspired by the ZZ Gundam. It’s a giant mobile suit formed by the Core Fighter and the G-Ceptor, a transformable unit that becomes the Gundam’s legs and arms. Like the AGE-1, this allows the mobile suit to be able to change forms. It had two other forms: Fortress which turned the mobile suit into a hovering weapon of mass destruction, armed with four powerful beam cannons which can wipe out anything in its path; and the Orbital mode, which turns the humongous AGE-3 into a speedy, space unit with tracking beam weaponry.

That beam rifle can punch through several mobile suits and keep going.

Finally we got the Gundam AGE-FX, to replace the heavily damaged AGE-3 for Kio. For me though, the AGE-FX’s design does not capture my imagination. It’s not very inspiring for some reason, not in the way the other End-of-the-series-Gundam does like the Wing Zero, Freedom, or 00-Raiser. Still, at least it’s better than Strike Freedom.

Fabulous!

The Mobile suit designs for the Vagans are better though, with interesting dragon designs, which is a departure from a lot of other series. The Vagan Gundam Legilis is well, a mixed bag,

The Federation mobile suits are fine as well, nothing too interesting, with the exception of Woolf’s white custom mobile suit, which looks pretty damn awesome.

One thing that does bug me though, is that the way the mobile suits move during the final arc: they seem to be getting flashier and more ridiculous, why would the Gundam AGE-FX moves its hands to use the funnels?? Why would the Fawn Farsia, piloted by Fram, need to swing its sceptre around to direct the energy whip or its flower shaped funnels?? Why does it need a sceptre in the first place??

Flower Powaaahhhh

Ugh.

Music

The music for Mobile Suit Gundam AGE is pretty good actually, only the first opening does not appeal to me. In fact, I feel that with each new opening song, it actually gets better.

It helps that the openings are beautifully animated with pretty awesome action scenes thrown in and good timing thrown in to the beat of the music. Special mention goes towards the 4^th opening, it’s a very addictive opening to watch.

(Artist – Name of Song)

Openings

• Asu E (To Tomorrow) – Galileo Galilei
• sharp# - Negoto
• Real – Vivid (this one is my favorite)
• Aurora – Aoi Eir

Ending

• Kimi no Naka No Eiyu (Hero in You) – Minami Kuribayashi
• My World – SPYAIR
• White Justice – Faylan
• Forget-me-not ~Wasurenagusa~ - FLOWER

Insert

• Memorial Days – KOKIA
• Kimi to Boku wa Soko ni Ita – AiRi

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So, what can I say about Mobile Suit Gundam AGE? Frankly, it’s a disappointment.

It starts off slow in Flit’s arc, goes through some meaningless bullshit, then has a few great moments and fizzles out. Repeat for next few arcs.

Perhaps the story can be fixed in SRW? Though how it will fit in is another issue.

The thing is, if somehow the final arc to bring all three main characters together in some epic fashion, it could still be a great anime. Somehow, the final arc just kinda went the meh way, and is extremely unsatisfying. After almost 100 years of war, everything is all sunshines and rainbow with one battle?

Nuh uh.

I’m sorry but Mobile Suit Gundam AGE just does not cut it for me. It’s just plain unsatisfactory.

Plenty of great ideas, but all wasted.

Big whoop, Flit was dipped in gold.

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED

My first ever anime review!

So recently Sunrise/Bandai remastered Mobile Suit Gundam SEED in HD, with the Blu-ray compilation coming sometime this year.

When I first heard the news, I was very excited. Gundam SEED was my first true foray into the Gundam franchise and left a deep mark on me as a teenager, becoming one of my favorite series of all time.

Ain't no better time than to have a trip down memory lane, and revisit one of the most iconic, and popular Gundam series of all time.

It has been almost 10 years since this series debuted, so I'm not going to bother with keeping spoilers in check. If you were a Gundam fan, you probably would know about the general story anyway.

(Warning: Long ass post ahead)

Two giant robots, a girl and a fuck-load of explosions.

Story

In the Cosmic Era timeline, humanity is divided into two major groups: Naturals and Coordinators. Coordinators are genetically enhanced humans, who are faster learning, stronger and immune to most diseases. Children born from a Coordinator couple inherit the genetic modifications without further need for more enhancements. Naturals are, duh, natural humans without any modifications.

The conflict between the two groups are the major driving force of the story. Coordinators are feared, despised and envied by Naturals; while Naturals are seen as an inferior species by Coordinators. Of course, this is not the viewpoint of every single person in the world, but certainly there is enough to launch a full scale war.

Before the war, most Coordinators fled to either PLANT, or neutral nations that are not anti-Coordinator, such as the Union of Orb.

In such a hostile world environment, it was just a matter of time before war exploded.

And then the war began between the Earth Alliance and PLANT's military wing, ZAFT. Three days after the war began, on 14th February, the EA launched a nuclear attack on one of PLANT's colonies, killing over 240,000 civilians. In retaliation, PLANT dropped Neutron Jammers all over Earth, which blocks nuclear fission reactions. This in turn caused hundreds of thousands of people across the planet to die as a huge energy crisis struck the planet, which was dependant on nuclear fission reactors.

Thus, began the Bloody Valentine War

Damn, this made World War II look like a snowball fight in comparison.

Giant Stomping Robots!! (Episode 1 of the HD remastered episode)

The anime starts one year after the war began, as the Earth Alliance is slowly losing ground to ZAFT's superior mobile suit technology, eventhough they have the numbers.

Receiving news that the Earth Alliance is also developing their own mobile suits, a small ZAFT commando team infiltrate Heliopolis, a space colony owned by the Union of Orb, in order to steal them.

Our protagonist, Kira Yamato, somehow ends up in one of the prototype mobile suits, as he learns to his horror that his childhood friend, Athrun Zala is now a member of ZAFT.

Rule of Drama

I don't think I did the anime any justice. This is, after all, a very summarized version of just the first episode.

Gundam SEED started off a bit slow, but the story gets better and more dramatic. Especially in episode 30,  after having their close friend killed by the other, Athrun and Kira finally have a no-hold-back beatdown on each other in their respective Gundams, resulting in one of the most brutal fight scenes in the whole series.

From that point on, the series matures, as the Bloody Valentine War became even more gruesome as both the Earth Alliance and ZAFT start engaging in genocidal tactics, determined to wipe the other side out completely.

The most annoying thing? Bloody flashback episodes. At least three of them were flashback episodes. It doesn't help that they used stock footage for them. It's no wonder the director, Mistuo Fukuda, earned the nickname "Flash Back 'Em All".

Overall, the storyline of Gundam SEED is very well done: there is no black and white morality here, though that is typical of any Gundam series, the added element of discrimination/racism and nuclear weapons bring it to a whole new level, sometimes it feels like extreme racial riots on a planetary scale.

Relatively speaking, Gundam SEED is probably the darkest Gundam series to date. It rarely has any funny moments, which of course is the whole damn point. By the end of the series, many characters have died.

War is hell, and the message is very clearly delivered.

Graphics

Gundam SEED is still a rather beautiful anime by today's standards, despite being made in 2001. However, low quality production still shows up once in a while in earlier episodes, though it is mostly averted by episode 10 or so.

Being one of the first Gundam series to be digitally animated, Gundam SEED was a huge leap in quality, it especially shines during the later episodes and during mobile suit combat scenes. Special mention goes to the design of the Archangel and the Dominion battleships, the Moebius Zero mobile armor unit and Freedom and Justice Gundams.

The HD Remastered version takes the graphics and pushes it up to eleven, by actually re-drawing and re-animating scenes that were low quality in the original: adding shadows and details to character faces and the mobile suits, detailed special effects etc etc.

Holy crap, how did I not remember her looking so bad??
(Remastered on top, original on bottom)

There are more comparison pictures here. (hint: The widescreen pics are the remastered versions).

One of my main complaints on the original Gundam SEED was that there was a shitload of stock footages. Recycled over and over and over and over and over again. It was very jarring especially when considering that the rest of the anime is actually quite well drawn.

Specific examples: Strike launching (in one of the episodes I can't remember which, the Strike was launching with the wrong equipment!!), Aegis firing his beam rifle, Kira in Freedom spamming his shooty beam death machine of doom, Moebius Zero using the Gunbarrel pods, Buster combining his two weapons into a single gun etc etc.

It was probably to reduce production costs but really...it was quite bad.

Characters

This is like...one third of the entire cast list. Probably less.

There are ALOT of characters in Gundam SEED. And this is not even counting the sidestories like in Gundam SEED Astray or Stargazer. 

The main characters are, as mentioned above, Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala. As characters, they do develop through the series, as they slowly get a hold of themselves and grow determined to stop the war at any costs. But their conflict and eventual reconciliation is one of the central theme of the plot, which in my opinion was much more important and interesting to watch. Thankfully, they were not generic heroes, though some people do find Kira's character a bit whiny to watch during the first part of the series.

To be fair, the guy was thrown into a situation he had no control over at all, and he was forced to kill people just because he was the only one who could pilot the one Gundam they still had on their side. For a person with no soldier training, it can be very traumatizing, especially when thrown into a life-or-death situation constantly.

Will you be able to point a gun at your own friend?
Threatening to kill him?

Athrun and Kira's conflict is central to the story, giving us different perspectives to consider: the traumatizing effects of war, the cynicism and at what point does the war end? Is there a right side?

The most interesting character in my opinion was actually Flay Allster, which has a very broken fanbase. You either love her. Or hate her.

Me? It's both.

One of the most tragic characters in Gundam SEED

I find her a fascinating character to watch. Yes, I hate her for the way she manipulated Kira's feelings; the way she was whiny and bitchy. But at the same time, to watch her as she spirals out of control is heartwrenching and I find myself unable to look away eventhough I know how tragic it will end.

It was like watching an accident in motion: you want to look away, but you can't.

While some people just hate her outright and dismiss her, I find that her actions are not without some form of justification. She was a young spoilt teenager (very likely a daddy's girl), and she was thrown into a middle of a war where survival was far from certain, and then she watched as her father was nastily killed off AFTER Kira promised to do his best to protect her father (note that I am not blaming Kira for this).

Sure, her actions were extreme, as she manipulated Kira's feelings as revenge. But is it that unthinkable? I certainly don't think so. Many people take for granted how broken someone can be when they reach extreme psychological low points.

Lets move on to the pilots. This is, after all, a Gundam anime.

The most badass pilot, and one of the coolest character, in the series in my opinion is:

Mu La Flaga.

Also owns a damn cool pilot helmet/suit.

Even before the series began, he was a famous pilot, known as the Hawk of Endymion, for taking out FIVE mobile suits in a Moebius Zero. Granted that said mobile armor is more powerful than the typical Earth Alliance mobile armor, but it is still a feat that was thought impossible.

Remember that is a world where the general consensus is that to take out even ONE GINN mobile suit requires FIVE mobile armors. If they were lucky. And in the process, very likely all of those mobile armors will be destroyed.

Furthermore, this guy once took on a battleship with his Moebius Zero. And won. Eventhough Rau La Creseut was onboard the battleship and has a sixth sense connection to him. So, even WITH foreknowledge of him attacking, they couldn't stop him from disabling the battleship.

Also, remember that this guy is a Natural, meaning he has no genetic modifications whatsoever in a world where every single ace pilot is a Coordinator. He is near the top of the list of kick-ass pilots through pure skill.

Hell, all of these achievements were well BEFORE he ever got into a mobile suit (which was Strike by the way, sorta like a hand-me-down from Kira).

Even his death scene was epic.

"I'm the man who can make the impossible, possible."
*manly tears were shed*

A Positron Blaster Cannon that fires antimatter positrons that annihilates anything in its path? No problem!! I will block it!!!

The only reason that huge wave of energy didn't go right through him is probably because of his sheer goddam awesomeness.

His death then became another reason to hate Azrael for his actions. Too bad Gundam SEED Destiny removed the dignity of his death by having him somehow surviving that shit.

As for the villains, there are three featured in the series.

From left to right: Muruta Azrael, Patrick Zala, and Rau Le Creuset.

Muruta Azrael is the head of Blue Cosmos, a radical/terrorist anti-Coordinator group that has a lot of influence amongst the Earth Alliance military. This man is a complete monster. He is trigger happy with his nukes, laughs like a maniac, creates supersoldiers with superaddictive drugs (so that said soldiers will die from withdrawal without regular consumption) and treats them as equipment rather than actual humans, and is a supreme sore loser.

But DAMN he is one hell of a sharp dresser.

That is a nice suit.

AND his last name is named after the ANGEL OF DEATH. Rather fitting for a man who practically started the Bloody Valentine War. Believe it or not, prior to his utter breakdown towards the end of the series, a lot of girls regard him as a pretty hot guy. And he's not exactly an armchair general either, he actually goes to the front lines to lead the troops, though he never actually gets into a mobile suit to fight.

Hard to believe that this guy was voiced by none other than Nobuyuki Hiyama, the guy who voiced the hot-blooded Guy Shishioh from The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar.

Seriously, how the hell.
Also: I'M FABULOUSSSS

Patrick Zala, Athrun Zala's father, is the antagonist from the Coordinators side, and is the most sympathetic out of the three (relatively speaking). He became the chairman of PLANT after winning the election from the former chairman, and old friend, Siegel Clyne. Like Muruta Azrael, he wants to see the other side completely annihilated, because his wife was killed in the first nuclear attack that sparked the whole war.

From that point, he got worse. He framed his OLD FRIEND, Siegel Clyne for treason and had him assassinated. He treated his son like any other soldier and even shot him at one point. Then he had GENESIS designed and built. It's a superweapon that fires a massive burst of gamma radiation that literally boils any fluid within the human body, the pressure causing their bodies to explode. *shudder*

Also, apparently two shots from this thing will decimate ALL LIFE on planet Earth.

That thing even looks evil.

Last, but not least, we have Rau La Creuset, undeniably one of the darkest characters in the series and the most omnicidal Char Clone ever. He manipulates Patrick Zala and Muruta Azrael, to ensure that both sides will annihilate each other, and almost succeeds.

Rau La Creuset is a clone of Mu La Flaga's father, and somehow being a clone makes him want to kill all life on earth. Something to do with him being the only person suitable to judge all of humanity. And he has decided we all don't deserve to live. Harsh, but er...somewhat a weak excuse.

But hey, he gets results. And based on his backstory, he is not a Coordinator, or rather it was never mentioned if he was a Coordinator. Which means that this guy was such a badass pilot, that he can fake being a modified human. Holy shit.

With great piloting skills, comes one badass Gundam.

While his reasons for villainy aren't very strong, there is no doubt that he gets the results. He may not have started the war, but he sure as hell made sure the casualties were high as fuck through manipulating people in the Earth Alliance and PLANT.

And a special group that deserves a mention, affectionately nicknamed by fans as "The Druggies"!!!

One of the few moments where Druggy is used as a good word.

Clockwise from bottom:
Orga Sabnack, pilot of Calamity Gundam, an artllery/bombardment type mobile suit, with extreme ranged firepower but lacks close ranged weapons.

Clotho Buer, pilot of Raider Gundam, a transformable mobile suit (abit ugly though) that is somewhat a jack-of-all trades, but Clotho uses him effectively as a hit-and-run unit. Raider also serves as a mobile carrier for Calamity, as Calamity does not have flight capabilities.

Lastly, Shani Andras, pilot of Forbidden Gundam, an amphibious/close combat mobile suit. It uses a giant scythe and has two special shields which can deflect energy weapons. It also has a plasma cannon which can bend, giving it a unique surprise element.

The Druggies were put under the command of Muruta Azrael, and are given performance enhancing drugs that places them on the level of Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala. By the time the Druggies appeared, Kira and Athrun were one of the most powerful pilots and were using nuclear-powered mobile suits. AND the Druggies were still giving them hell.

Damn.

Music

If there's one thing that people both lovers and haters of Gundam SEED can agree on, its that the music for the series is extremely good. This even extends as far to the sequel, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, and that one had even more haters.

I love all the openings and endings for the series and some of the background music as well, which until now are still some of my favorite J-pop songs of all time. The only other series which I have that much love for the music is Mobile Suit Gundam 00.

Maybe next time.

For me, Gundam SEED was my first introduction to T.M. Revolution and Nami Tamaki.

So far, almost all of the openings and endings were extremely popular when they first debuted.

These are definitely fantastic songs to listen to, it helps that the openings animation are awesome. And with the HD remastering, there's no doubt that it will be even more awesome.

(Artist - Name of Song)

Openings (in order of appearance)
T.M. Revolution - Invoke
Vivian or Kazuma - Moment
Nami Tamaki - Believe
Nami Tamaki - Realize

Endings (in order of appearance)
See-saw - Anna Ni Issho Datta No Ni
Tatsuya Ishii - River
Mika Nakashima - Find The Way

Insert Song
T.M. Revolution - Meteor

Special mention goes to this particular song, Akatsuki no Kuruma (translated as The Wheels of Dawn), which was played in full during Episode 40 of Gundam SEED. It was a tearjerking scene as the protagonists have to escape the Union of Orb and Cagalli's father sacrifices himself to ensure that they escape, for the sake of a peaceful future.

Akatsuki no Kuruma playing in the background was akin to a funeral song for him, and many viewers found the scene heartwrenching. Said scene can be watched here.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So, to summarize the goods of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED:

• Decent starting storyline, but picks up immensely after about 13 episodes.
• Badass Gundam designs (Providence and Calamity are my favorite)
• The War is Hell theme is really driven home here, showing how bad war truly is, especially in the last arc
• Character driven, instead of focusing on said war.
• Excellent voice acting and characters potrayal (for the most part anyway)
• Fantastic music direction
• One of the darkest Gundam series to date

The bads:

• Not a very strong antagonist character(s), or rather since there are three major baddies, not all of them are fleshed out properly, especially Rau La Creuset.
• TOO. MUCH. STOCK. ANIMATION.
• Inconsistent animation quality (although this is rather common with any animated series)
• Similarities to the original Mobile Suit Gundam turns off veteran Gundam fans
• Character driven, instead of focusing on said war.
• One of the darkest Gundam series to date

Wow, this was one heck of a trip down memory lane for me. But Gundam SEED does hold a special place in my heart, as I watched it as a teenager.

That was a hell of a long post as well.

Now excuse me. I'm going to try to finish up Final Fantasy XIII-2. Tune in next time for the review.

Adios, kids.