Mobile Suit Gundam SEED

Rym

So what did you think of this show? What did you think of our review? We really had to be careful not to spoil this one. ^_~

thaneofcawdor

Oh ye gods, a friend loaned me Destiny recently. I got to episode 5, by which time I'd come to the conclusion that the series had inextricably disappeared up its own poop chute.

Kidder

I liked Gundam Seed. Not too much teen angst, lots of different environments (space, desert, sea etc.), compelling story and characters and a pretty good soundtrack. I could not sit through 3 episodes of Destiny.

Kite

I've never been a big fan of most of the Gundam series so Seed didn't appeal to me at all since it is pretty much bits and pieces of previous Gundam series mixed together with alot of recycled stock animation. The show's only saving grace was that Kira isn't as angsty or annoying as other Gundam male leads, the large amount of cute females and the music. It offers nothing new for anime fans who are familiar with the universe, but it isn't a bad introduction for those who havn't seen any Gundam before besides Wing.

Symmetry

I've never been really interested in Gundam in general, mostly because the robots look like big Christmas tree ornaments unlike the relatively palatable robots in FMP or Gasaraki. Also, I've heard a lot of people complaining about Gundam SEED Destiny, and I suppose that turned me off to it too. But now I think I'll probably Netflix it and give it a chance.

Kiey

I love Gundam SEED, it's one of my favorite animes. I agree with Kite that is basically composed of lots of pieces from different Gundam series', but I think thats what makes it great. Since it takes the best parts from the old series' and manages to mix them together into an amazing show.

I enjoyed Destiny, but its definitly not as good. I think that they really tried to make it about different characters, but for most of the series they really ended up falling back on a lot of the original cast. But generally its a good story I think, especially with all the cool homages. Like how the Chairman of PLANT is voiced by the same guy that voiced Char.

But anyway, man I'd love to be on that final thoughts episode. I really like talking about this show, its still really fresh in my mind even though I watched it as it was originally released in fan sub.

baltmatrix

I did enjoy your review of the series and I am also very happy that you guys hated Destiny. My only real complaint was that you NEVER talked about the mecha themselves. The Gundam series have always been about characters and MECHA. Sadly you left out the mecha.

Apreche

I did enjoy your review of the series and I am also very happy that you guys hated Destiny. My only real complaint was that you NEVER talked about the mecha themselves. The Gundam series have always been about characters and MECHA. Sadly you left out the mecha.

Talking about robots in Gundam is like talking about cars in Initial D. It's so obvious you don't have to talk about it. People who care about cars already know when they watch Initial D. People who care about robots already know what Gundam has to offer. People who don't care about cars or robots will only be turned off if you focus on that aspect.

You see, not talking about the robots is all part of our evil plan. We tell people to watch Gundam SEED because of the drama, the sci-fi and the moral conflict. Which is, in fact, most of the show. But as they watch the show and like it, they find themselves liking the robots also. Next thing you know, they're watching Mazinger and GaoGaiGar.

So talking about ZGMF-X13A Providence Gundam's Disconnected Rapid Armament Group Overlook Operation Network(DRAGOON), and how cool it is, is well and good for us. But it doesn't make for interesting podcasting, and it isn't going to convince anyone to watch this awesome show. It especially won't convince Rym, who doesn't like robots as much as we do. In fact, I don't even like robots that much. I'm more of a casual "robots are teh awesome" guy rather than a "robots are the only thing that matters" guy. A show that has robots and nothing else isn't going to do it for me.

Kilarney

I've put it in my Netflix queue. Glad to hear that you're back to doing reviews. I've never been a fan of con shows. I have no desire to go to a con, so the shows don't do much for me.

I looked at the DVDs on amazon.com. Holy crap! Do people really spend that much money on anime DVDs? You have to REALLY like the series to drop well over $100 to own it. Now I see why Netflix is such a good thing for anime fans.

Ametto

You guys convinced me to watch the show.

omegafinal

My opinion of this series is like a bellcurve; beginning of the SEED and the end of SEED Destiny I rated low (although the special Destiny ending saved it a bit), and the end of SEED and the beginning of SEED Destiny I rated high. (Can you picture it?)

jacobFUTURE

I'm listening to the Gundam Seed show right now.

You guys NEED to see the original gundam. The easiest way to see it is with the Gundam movies (I think there are 2 or 3 of them.) Basically it's the whole TV series condensed into movies with a few things added.

The original series has just been released in Japan. I'm going back and forth whether to buy it or just rent it.

I saw the first DVD... I thought it was great, but not nearly as good as the original.

Also if your super into the early stuff, the gundam manga Gundam Origins is awesome. I have no idea if it's made it to the usa yet.

Kilarney

What are the names of the original movies?

Apreche

Original Mobile Suit Gundam boxed set. The original Gundam series was just called "Mobile Suit Gundam".

Kiey

I saw part of the original when they aired it on Toonami, that was just before 9/11, and interestingly they had been on a break during that time, and basically stopped airing it altogether.

But even though I haven't seen the series I know the basic plot from playing all the Mobile Suit Gundam PS2 games... they aren't really bad they are just for fans really I guess.

Oh, and the one redeeming thing from GSD that made it less bad for me was the fact that they had Rick Doms

Rym

Gomidog's watching it right now, so I'll happily have an excuse to watch a few key scenes again.

The two characters stuck on an island together scene(s)
The "opera house scene"
The mass-driver scene
The "talking through a fence scene"
The "someone gives someone else something very large" scene
The "someone dies doing something awesome" scene
The other "someone dies doing something awesome" scene
The "someone stupid un-stupids at the last possible moment" scene

I really liked this show ^_~

Apreche

The "someone gives someone else something very large" scene which happens soon after the "opera house scene" is my favorite scene. It is also known as the "T.M. Revolution music in the middle of the show" scene. One problem with this scene is that midway through the scene, the episode ends. The best part of that scene continues in the beginning of the next episode.

Kiey

The appearance of the very large thing with the TMR music in the next episode is probably one of my favorite scenes ever... I think I'll go watch it now.

baltmatrix

Don't forget the "damn good shooting" scenes and the "people go 'POP'" scenes.

my quay

I thought the review was great, and now I'm thinking I should go watch the sub, as I saw it on Cartoon Network and wasn't impressed. I found Kira to be a little too annoying. Does he comes off better in the Japanese version?

Apreche

I thought the review was great and now I'm thinking I should go watch the sub as I saw it on Cartoon Network and wasn't impressed. I found Kira to be a little too annoying. Does he comes off better in the Japanese version?

He's still sort of annoying until the later episodes. I think that's sort of the point of the show. It doesn't matter really. For me, the awesomeness of the other characters is what really makes the show.

Muu La Flaga.

One Sin

Wow, this topic is old. Ah well, I guess going through the Tuesday feed backwards wasn't such a good idea. >_<

Anyway, I liked your review. Good job on avoiding spoilers. Yeah, thanks for not going into the robots. As great as the Providence Gundam is, it's da kind of thing ya have to see for yourself.

Overall, I'd rate SEED as my third favorite gundam show (behind 08th MS Team and Wing).

Oh, two questions:
1. What do you guys think of the director, Fukuda? Due to the catastrophic error that was GSD, he has a reputation among SEED fans as a complete tool and idiot. There were two, rather unpleasant cases of this. First, he insisted that his equally incompetant wife work on the show (she's responsible for the Meer arc in Destiny). Before then, he had originally planned to kill Kira off at the end of SEED, but his voice actor threw a fit and Fukuda caved.

2. As the show went on, the mechs and battles got increasingly outrageous. Do you think that the show should have just gone all out and dropped the real robot thing in favor of a more super robot-ish style?

Apreche

Never watched Destiny because we knew it was crap before we started. The director might be a tool for making destiny, but he must have at least something good going on for making SEED originally. You can't make a good show by accident.

Railith

"You got Mobile Suit Gundam in my Gundam Wing!"
"You got Gundam Wing in my Mobile Suit Gundam!"

Gundam SeeD should be two great taste that taste great together, but it ends up feeling like a rip off. I knew the plot of the entire show because I watched Mobile Suit Gundam and wasn't surprised at any point during it. Kira is a whiny bitch who angst for most of the show instead of getting down to business like Amuro. I know there have been some lame Gundams but what the hell? This show just pisses me off.

However, Muu La Flaga is bad ass and deserves his own spin off show.

Kiey

I watched Destiny as it was released from fan subbers, and I have to say that I did like how it started with essentially focusing on a whole new group of main characters ,this time within ZAFT, but still having Asuran around to sort of bring in the old fans, but also to flesh out his character more. Problem was that the show slowly stopped centering around the crew of the Minerva and started to become about Kira and Lacus again, which is really what killed the show in my opinion. And I was ok with Meer, until they did a whole episode about her like 4 episodes from the end of the show, that was just a horrible place for it when you are trying to wrap everything up. Oh! and the whole Cagalli marrying the dumbass thing that Kira saves her from, that was so not in her character wtf.

Yeah there are seriously a lot of little things wrong with this show that add up to make it not worth it at all.

One Sin

Little things?

Dude, a quarter of the show consists of flashbacks, recaps, and stock animation!

Also, the final battle was lame.
*Spoiler Alert*


Everyone started suffering from Plot-Induced Retardation (namely anyone that wasn't Kira), the mechs just wouldn't stop getting lamer (the S-Freedom is among the tackiest gundams i've seen yet and the I-Justice is . . . well . . . the same damn Justice from before!), and the final battle ended with an asteroid being destroyed due to two mechs flying circles around it with mile-long beam sabres. Oh, and almost none of the new characters got any development. I don't think getting more emo counts for much either. >_<

CHOIS CHOIS CHOIS

Oh snap! I'm digging up old post again.
I'm thinking of buying the box set of Gundam SEED, I just wanted to know if the American DVD release, is at all, as heavily censored as the Cartoon Network version was?

One Sin

It wasn't censored as heavily (so you won't be seeing any rayguns), but last I checked, at least the scenes where Kira and Flay get it on and Siegel Clyne's death scene don't make it.

Banta

Oh snap! I'm digging up old post again.
I'm thinking of buying the box set of Gundam SEED, I just wanted to know if the American DVD release, is at all, as heavily censored as the Cartoon Network version was?

I wouldn't bother if you have the fansubs, SEED wasn't good enough to buy.