Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Episodes 1 - 50
Before watching this I was really excited because it seemed like such a love it or hate it show. So I thought it must be very bold and exciting to be so divisive. Even if I hated it I thought it would at least be interesting. To my surprise I was actually kinda bored for a lot of it.
Before watching this I was really excited because it seemed like such a love it or hate it show. So I thought it must be very bold and exciting to be so divisive. Even if I hated it I thought it would at least be interesting. To my surprise I was actually kinda bored for a lot of it.
The plot is fine. It's functional and works within its own logic. It's basically retelling the original series so it better be. There's nothing I found super compelling but there's also nothing wrong with it.
Character-wise, I found Kira a little bland and I got the impression that the writers were afraid to make him too overtly flawed. But what makes a character is their relationship to others and unfortunately this is a weak point for the cast. The relationship between Atrhun and Kira has a lot of dramatic potential as you can see in something like Lelouch and Suzaku in Code Geass, but I felt it was unrealized. I think it's because you don't really see much of their friendship before they become enemies so it doesn't hit as hard. Cagalli and Lacus also feel like characters with a lot of potential and I liked them when they first appeared but again I can't help but feel like their characters are mostly there to serve Kira and I felt like they never got enough of their own stuff. Kira's early friend group pretty forgettable and the rest of the cast were just kinda there. It really needed more of those down-to-earth these characters are just hanging out moments to humanize them more, like when Cagalli and Kira were getting kebabs. I never loved any of these characters but I also never really hated them either.
Thematically I'm also a little mixed. I feel that coordinators are an awkward replacement for newtypes. In the original series newtypes represented a new way of thinking and theoretically anyone could be one even if it was incredibly rare. Coordinators are a eugenicists wetdream and you either are or you aren't. That's not a bad concept for a sci-fi story but SEED glosses over many of its implications. Having a society revolve around genetically manufactured population asks questions of privilege, elitism, or nature vs nurture. Questions SEED doesn't even pretend to care about and ultimately only uses for a very basic and simplistic discrimination theme which is used to fuel a very basic and simplistic theme on how hatred fuels war. SEED attemps a more centrist "both sides are bad" approach to the conflict in contrast to the original series where Zeon were absolutely the villains in the series, but ironically I found the original more nuanced in how it had good people support an evil cause while the Federation was awash in corrupt and self-serving people. That said, even if it doesn't have as much substance as I'd like, it's still a anti-war and anti-discrimination series aimed at children and we can never have too many of those.
I'm kinda surprised that this series is so divisive and garnered so much hatred. It's a competently made show, if anything I don't think it's interesting enough to earn so much ire. I kind've wished it was worse at times because then it would've been more interesting to me. But as it was, I had a decent time watching it. I'll probably eventually watch Destiny but I want to go back and finish some other stuff first. I'll probably do the 0080 OVA next which I've heard good things about.
Character-wise, I found Kira a little bland and I got the impression that the writers were afraid to make him too overtly flawed. But what makes a character is their relationship to others and unfortunately this is a weak point for the cast. The relationship between Atrhun and Kira has a lot of dramatic potential as you can see in something like Lelouch and Suzaku in Code Geass, but I felt it was unrealized. I think it's because you don't really see much of their friendship before they become enemies so it doesn't hit as hard. Cagalli and Lacus also feel like characters with a lot of potential and I liked them when they first appeared but again I can't help but feel like their characters are mostly there to serve Kira and I felt like they never got enough of their own stuff. Kira's early friend group pretty forgettable and the rest of the cast were just kinda there. It really needed more of those down-to-earth these characters are just hanging out moments to humanize them more, like when Cagalli and Kira were getting kebabs. I never loved any of these characters but I also never really hated them either.
Thematically I'm also a little mixed. I feel that coordinators are an awkward replacement for newtypes. In the original series newtypes represented a new way of thinking and theoretically anyone could be one even if it was incredibly rare. Coordinators are a eugenicists wetdream and you either are or you aren't. That's not a bad concept for a sci-fi story but SEED glosses over many of its implications. Having a society revolve around genetically manufactured population asks questions of privilege, elitism, or nature vs nurture. Questions SEED doesn't even pretend to care about and ultimately only uses for a very basic and simplistic discrimination theme which is used to fuel a very basic and simplistic theme on how hatred fuels war. SEED attemps a more centrist "both sides are bad" approach to the conflict in contrast to the original series where Zeon were absolutely the villains in the series, but ironically I found the original more nuanced in how it had good people support an evil cause while the Federation was awash in corrupt and self-serving people. That said, even if it doesn't have as much substance as I'd like, it's still a anti-war and anti-discrimination series aimed at children and we can never have too many of those.
I'm kinda surprised that this series is so divisive and garnered so much hatred. It's a competently made show, if anything I don't think it's interesting enough to earn so much ire. I kind've wished it was worse at times because then it would've been more interesting to me. But as it was, I had a decent time watching it. I'll probably eventually watch Destiny but I want to go back and finish some other stuff first. I'll probably do the 0080 OVA next which I've heard good things about.
