Alternative TitlesEnglish: Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Synonyms: Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED Japanese: 機動戦士ガンダムSEED
Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 50
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Oct 5, 2002 to Sep 27, 2003
Duration:
24 min. per episode Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 8.111 (scored by 14437 users)
Ranked: #2572
Popularity: #128
Members: 21,872
Favorites: 1,159 1 indicates a weighted score
My Info
Popular Tags
action drama mecha romance |
SynopsisC.E. 71: In the midst of war between the Naturals (OMNI) and Coordinators (ZAFT), a unit from ZAFT is dispatched to hijack the Earth Alliance's newly developed mobile suits on the neutral colony of Heliopolis. Orb Civilian Coordinator Kira Yamato attends the technical college on Heliopolis. After ZAFT hijacks 4 of the 5 mobile suits, Kira stumbles upon the last one, Strike, forced to pilot it to save his and his friend's lives. During this confusion, Kira also reunites with his childhood Coordinator friend, Athrun Zala, who ironically turns out to be a ZAFT soldier and one of the hijackers at Heliopolis. Having control of Strike, Kira joins the Earth Alliance boarding the ship known as Archangel, to protect his friends while despairing over becoming the enemy of his childhood friend and people. |
Related AnimeAdaptation: Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed
Spin-off: Mobile Suit Gundam, Seed Supernova: Tanekyara Gekijo
Sequel: Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: After-Phase Between the Stars
Side story: Mobile Suit Gundam Seed MSV Astray
Summary: Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Movie I - The Empty Battlefield
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
Reviews
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kiriska
69 of 93 people found this review helpful
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50 of 50 episodes seen
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| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
7 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Character |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
Gundam SEED started off as just another Gundam series for me. I watched it because it was airing and convenient... I didn't expect it to become my favorite Gundam series of all time.
STORY - At this point, you'd have to stretch pretty far to find a Gundam series with a mindblowingly different premise, so there's no point in really focusing on the fact that yes, this is another series about teenagers in giant robots fighting a war that's pretty pointless. There is nothing new about Gundam SEED, but then, it deserves points for being able to stand out despite that very fact. For me, one of the most appealing things about SEED was its very easy-to-understand plotline. The root of the war, while decidedly trivial to some extent, is simple. I'm sure more than a few people were confused, and subsequently put off, by the political madness that ravaged the plots of the original Mobile Suit Gundam, as well as newer classics like Gundam Wing, so it was nice to see something so simple come along.
In addition to the war, one of the strongest story points for me was the conflict between Athrun and Kira. The cruelty and tragicness of pitting friend against friend works very well here, and I know I've said before that I'm just a sucker for this kind of stuff. For SEED, this conflict was well done, progressed smoothly, and resolved rather satisfactory. It was pretty neat to see the same conflict mirrored later with Dearka and Yzak too. Also, this series was one of the first in a long time to surprise me so much with things happening in the story. People died. People you really didn't expect to die died. So many people die that at some point, you kind of started wondering if anyone was actually going to live! But despite the number of deaths, you never got the feeling that it was overdone, or that any of the characters' deaths didn't have some significance or meaning, and that's definitely a feat.
Those two aspects of SEED made up for all the cliches that came with being a Gundam series -- white mask's ulterior motive was nothing amazing, and the ending to the war wasn't anything special either. But by the end of it all, it isn't the basics of the story that's important, it's all the progress you've made with the characters and their own personal resolutions.
CHARACTER - The characters in SEED probably contributed the most to gaining my favor. All of them are exceptionally well done. Yes, even the minor characters, which is definitely a rarity in anime. All of them seem like real people; they're complex and have emotions, motives, flaws. Both of the protagonists are split between a side that has to fight and a side that hurt because of everything that's happening. After all the stoic personalities in Gundam Wing, it was incredible for me to see characters that would actually cry. On several occasions, even. In fact, for the first half of the series, it seriously surprised me just how much of a crybaby Kira was. But it worked for his character, so even though he kind of turned into a godmodding, self-righteous bastard later on, it was okay.
Kira aside, for me, Athrun was the most interesting character and had the most depth. Throughout the entire series, he was in conflict. And as soon as one conflict was resolved, another would present itself. The poor guy was in constant turmoil, which was really great to see. He was easy to relate to and never grew out of reach like Kira did. Secondary characters like Cagalli and Lacus were also refreshing to see -- female characters that had strength to stand up on their own. Indeed, one might venture to say that our male protagonists depended much more on their female counterparts than the other way around, as is traditionally the case.
It would be exhausting to go through the list of other characters, though many of them are also important and very relevant. Suffice to say that there are almost NO flat characters in SEED. All of them have dimension and depth and develop throughout the series. I don't really think this happens in many other anime.
ARTWORK & ANIMATION - I rather like the art style of SEED (the same people also did Sokyuu no Fafner); it's pleasing to the eye and works well for the content of the series. The animation itself is pretty average, and I'm still waiting for the day when explosions in the distance graduate from looking like Pacman, but oh well. There's nothing else really worth noting, but it certainly isn't an ugly series.
MUSIC - I... adore the music for this entire series. All three instrumental soundtracks are well worth getting! The battle music is strong and epic! The introspection music is interesting and intriguing! The tragic music makes the already tragic scene ten times more touching. It's just fantastic all around. After the bigshots Yoko Kanno and Yuki Kajiura, it's Toshihiko Sahashi that makes it on my playlist the most! And the OP/ED themes are pretty much all top notch as well. I've been a fan of T.M. Revolution for a long time, so "Invoke" was perfect for the first opening. SEED introduced the world to Nami Tamaki, and I must say I've definitely become a fan since her debut. SEE-SAW and Mika Nakashima are always good as well, and even the lesser known artists in the lineup are pretty awesome.
DUBBING & VOCALS - I saw the first half of this series in English but ended up seeing the second half subbed (because SEED was, for some reason, so unpopular that CN shoved it in a death slot). The dub was nothing spectacular certainly, but it was decent. None of the voices were up to par with their Japanese counterparts, but the only one that seriously annoyed me was Richard Cox, and that was mostly because the man can't seem to change his voice between characters (and thus, the character he voiced sounded like Inuyasha to me). The Japanese cast, on the other hand, is top notch. Akira Ishida as Athrun remains one of my favorite performances ever, and Souichiro Hoshi as Kira was pretty great too. And of course, you can't forget Rie Tanaka as Lacus -- Lacus has several songs she performs within the series and Tanaka is the one singing all of them. It always pleases me when they're able to do that and helps reaffirm the fact that the Japanese seem to take their voice acting much more seriously than we do.
OVERALL - I know I haven't seen all of the Gundam series out there, but of those I've seen, this is definitely my favorite. The characters come to life and everything else falls into place behind that. A lot of people cling onto Mobile Suit Gundam as the only good one because it's the original, but though it was a good series that obviously propelled the creation of all subsequent Gundams, for this generation of anime fans, it's sorely outdated. I really feel like Gundam SEED should be the series taking its place for the post-2000 generation of fans. That statement may bode well in Japan, as this series was wildly popular, but I'm disappointed to see that it failed miserably in the States. Chalk that up to other factors though, 'cause this series is damn good. read more
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slpless
17 of 28 people found this review helpful
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50 of 50 episodes seen
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
6 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Character |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
I’m not really into mecha anime, so when I decided to watch Gundam SEED (GS) I was a bit reluctant. I was primarily expecting lots of action and very little on story and characters. However, considering the positive reviews I decided to give it a chance. Anyway, before I start I would like to say that I watched several universal century Gundams (0079, Zeta, and Char’s Counterattack) and even did reviews for them. So I may make several references and comparisons.
GS was considered to be an updated version of the original Mobile Suit Gundam (MSG) for the 21st century, as it deals with more contemporary issues (ie cloning, genetic modification, etc). So it should be no surprise that GS starts out in a very similar vein to MSG. However, this isn’t to say that GS copied MSG, instead GS took the best parts of MSG and improved it. Well at least for the first half of the series. The pacing was a definite improvement as it was nearly flawless, I can’t really separate the episodes easily as they blended so well together which makes GS ideal for marathoning. The story is also very similar, 2 warring factions, political intrigue, and the viewpoint of both sides, typical Gundam. I don’t need to get in to specifics, in general the crew of the <new advanced ship> attempts to escape/fight off another ship and its crew. This is while trying to get to a specific destination and completing various checkpoints. Sure it wasn’t the most original of stories but paired with its fast pace and execution it was damn entertaining in its own right. However, in the case of GS the characters take a much bigger role. While the 1st half was good and entertaining it doesn’t compare to its 2nd half.
The 2nd half was where GS breaks free from its MSG roots and finds its true self. Here, GS really focuses on the characters, in particular the conflict between Kira and Athrun. Not only them, there was a lot of focus on the various character’s conflicts as well as plenty of character development. Here the action/battles take an even more secondary focus and the characters/narrative clearly becomes the primary focus. The overall structure of the story improved tremendously as it’s no longer linear (from checkpoint to checkpoint); instead GS features a more dynamics story structure. Pacing for the 2nd half moves even faster and GS rides this momentum until the very end. However, its not without its faults. The new antagonist introduced felt like they were introduced for the sake of having Gundam battles/make more toys. This is due to them being extremely one-dimensional. Finally, there were quite a few coincidences and illogical moments throughout. For example, when the odds becomes overwhelming Kira or someone else coming out of nowhere to save the day. Considering the overall quality of everything else, those moments can easily be forgiven.
As I mentioned before there was a much bigger focus on the characters in GS than in MSG. For the most part, the characters are multi-dimensional and likeable, the major exception being the newly introduced antagonist in the 2nd half. Kira in particular has gone through quite a bit of development. The angst Kira goes through in the beginning is often exaggerated by some people. If anything Kira is quite admirable, fighting/doing what he has to despite his fears and doubts. He doesn’t let his feelings get in the way of what needs to be done and the only person he’s complained/confided in was Fray. This is unlike Amuro or most of the cast of Zeta where they do whatever they want for no concern for the greater good. However, Athrun get my vote for most complex and interesting character in GS. Not only does he have to deal with having his best friend as an enemy, he also has to deal with his father, own beliefs, etc. Plus he’s a badass when it comes to all forms of combat.
In terms of purely technical merit, GS features good animation and artwork. Rarely does the quality drop. My only major complaint would be with the constant use of recycled animation, a major pet peeve of mine. Also, the action scenes feel a bit uninspired. Gundam shoots, close up of plot screaming, Gundam does a melee attack, close up of pilot and repeat. What made these mecha battles more exciting was the excellent and powerful music. The ost in general is also well done and features some very good insert songs.
Another interesting thing to note would be the recap episodes. Normally, I hate recaps but in the case of GS there were a few that were worth watching. This is because some of the recap episodes actually add background information to the GS universe. Nevertheless a recap episode is still a recap episode and they had far too many. (Not 1 or 2 recap episodes but 4!)
I also have to warn the viewer that GS features many references to other Gundam titles and the Gundam universe in general. References such as newtypes, Char clones, etc will go over the head of viewers not familiar with the Gundam universe. While its not necessary to watch other Gundams to enjoy GS it will most likely increase one’s enjoyment.
GS is easily one of the better mecha anime titles I’ve seen. The first half was light and enjoyable with a fast paced plot, albeit very linear. It feels like the crew of the Archangel was simply moving form checkpoint to checkpoint. When the 2nd half comes the overall quality increases. This is partly due to GS becoming its own and really focus on the character/narrative. The 2nd half was distinctly more serious and dramatic. Plus it takes its momentum and keeps building and building until the very end. Animation and art were all top notch, suffering from a few thing namely, recycled animation and slightly uninspired action scenes. GS also suffered from too many coincidences and illogical moments. Although, considering the quality of everything else, those things can be ignored. In the end Gundam SEED is fast paced entertaining watch, but the true strength of Gundam SEED can be found in the 2nd half with its characters. read more
Recommendations
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Both of these shows focus on the ongoing battle between two childhood best friends on opposite sides. They also both have mecha has a pivotal focus point in combat. While their settings are different, there are many similar character relations and plot points that viewers of both of these shows will probably enjoy.
With the same studio, and the same 'friends on opposite sides' dynamic these two mecha series share obvious similarities. Take Gundam SEED and inject extra intrigue, supernatural powers ala Death Note, make the hero cleverer and much more morally dubious, and you have Code Geass.
you'll see a lot of similarities between these 2 series like the plot, character roles, etc.
When I first began watching Code Geass, the plot immediately reminded me of the first episode of SEED. The only thing that was different was the personality of the protagonist. Other characters seem similar too.
Later on it's quite obvious that parts of the plot are extremely similar, you if you enjoyed SEED, you would like Code Geass, or the contrary.
If you're like me and adored all of the character interactions in Gundam SEED, then you will certainly love the ones in Code Geass. Admittedly, the stories are very different. But hey, they both have mechas, and they both pit best friends against each other. Always a fun conflict to see, right?
Gundam Seed and Code Geass both have the same relationships between the characters. Lelouch and his best friend are fighting for opposing causes and end up fighting each other. They are both Mecha anime and have really Twisted story lines. But thats what makes it so good :)
In the last few weeks I've been singing the praises of Code Geass, and when people ask why I always end up comparing it to Gundam Seed. Both series have a similar plot, you've got a character who is silly smart, and decides to 'save the world'. Through both series you'll find you'll have yourself pondering about which side your really on. While Code Geass has Lelouch doing questionable things, you'll find half the characters in Seed lost themselves trying to decide who are the good guys. Although there is obviously a little more fighting and Mecha in Seed there is still a strong storyline and you'll find yourself wondering how each episode will conclude, although there's never much doubt on who will win.
Both are mecha animes and with actually plot that is moving... Both take place in the future and there are some fantasy and romance elements too.
Mechs used for war, childhood best friends pitted against each other because of war, main characters are both chick-magnets so there are awkward love/anti-love triangles
Sunrise created both gundam seed and Code Geass and the storyline is very similar as there are two best friends who are forced to fight each other etc.
The same sort of racially-charged war with some that switch sides and such. Mech-suits are common, too.
The mech combat is very well done and any fan of mech anime or of futuristic combat will appreciate both series.
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Same Character Design Baby! And Mecha Rocks!
The character design was done by the same person. Although both are Mecha-animes I wouldn't say that the plot is all that similar though.
Both are mecha shows with teenage soldiers, also they both share similar character designs.
Yeah, both series have the same char designer, so spectacular!*_*
And always both anime have the mecha side as a main part of the story..
I suggest to watch both ^^!
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Opening Theme#1: "INVOKE" by T.M. Revolution (eps 1-13)
#2: "moment" by Vivian or Kazuma (eps 14-26)
#3: "Believe" by Nami Tamaki (eps 27-40)
#4: "Realize" by Nami Tamaki (eps 41-50)
Ending Theme#1: "Anna ni Issho Datta no ni" by See-Saw (eps 1-26)
#2: "RIVER" by Tatsuya Ishii (eps 27-39)
#3: "FIND THE WAY" by Mika Nakashima (eps 40-50)
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