Revisiting Gundam SEED - Part 2
Intro
Welcome to part two of my four part series on Gundam SEED! My goal with this series has been to rewatch Gundam SEED for the first time since it originally aired back in 2002. It’s a rewatch with open arms and an open mind after almost a decade of seemingly universal SEED hatred within the North American Gundam community.
So far my experience has been mostly positive. There are some rough parts, not really with the characters, but the weak plot and setting. Certainly nothing to justify the vehement hate.
If this is your first time seeing a Revisiting Gundam SEED article please check out Part 1 @ http://gundamguy.blogspot.com/2013/03/revisiting-gundam-seed-part-1-by-team.html
Looking Back at Part 1
Before getting to my comments on the second quarter of Gundam SEED I wanted to take a few moments to address the first part of my review, or rather, some of the comments that it garnered. .
Newtypes v. Coordinators you say? Well, that was bound to come up at some point, though I was waiting for the end of the series to see how things fleshed out. I agree, it’s nice to see both sides of the racial divide but I can’t really credit SEED for handling that too well. From what I’ve seen both sides are a bunch of children and the radical Blue Cosmos group hasn’t done much more than spill some condiments and get mentioned in passing. I prefer the slower development of a Newtype, and the mystery surrounding it, instead of the plausible yet boring coordinator origins.
Zeta Gundam has flaws? Well, yes, it’s not perfect but one can blame its issues on 80’s anime trends. SEED only has itself to blame.
To the person who commenting on the rapid development of mobile suit tech in the series, you’re absolutely right. I hadn’t realized it until you pointed it out. While the franchise’s non-UC era shows had been slowly leaving its “realistic” roots behind, SEED really took it a huge step further. Everyone except for the Earth folks pretty much start out with overly impressive mobile suits which can only (and do) develop into brighter and flashier models way too quickly.
One or two commenters mentioned that the HD remake I was watching was only one phase of Sunrise’s remake. It seems I was checking out the version which aired on TV initially and Sunrise later released a full remake with updated animation all over the place. As one source dried up I moved to a second and now, I think, I’m watching the final release. Frankly, I can’t tell whether the fully re-done animation looks better or worse. Sure, it’s cleaner and nicer looking, but the style change is just doesn’t look right...
