Sometimes, sequels to popular series work. Most of the time, they don't. Destiny was one of the latter.
STORY - The fact that this is a direct sequel to a Gundam series already puts Destiny's story at a disadvantage. Think about it -- all Gundam series start with war and end with resolution. Thus, SEED had resolution, and the only way for Destiny to begin is by destroying that resolution. And it has to be a cheap and forced-feeling destruction because there's hardly two year's difference between the end of the first series and the start of the sequel since they wanted to reuse a majority
...
of the cast. So yeah, we're not off to a great start here. Admittedly, it is near-impossible for me to view Destiny as a standalone series, and as a huge fan of SEED, I know I'm prone to being a lot more critical than usual on its sequel. And that's me admitting to my bias upfront.
Moving on. Destiny seems to try too hard in mirroring many circumstances and storylines already present in SEED, making them seem forced, unoriginal, and repetitious. (If SEED already had a few recycled storyline elements, then certainly Destiny has them in spades.) The basis for the new war seems trivial compared to the previous, and all the countries far too eager to participate in the conflict considering their hard-won peace. The twists were too predictable. Surprisingly significant and unexpected character death was one of the greatest merits I found in SEED, and Destiny tried to perform the same tricks. Unfortunately, these attempts all failed as almost all the character deaths in this sequel could be seen a mile away. The final resolution at the end of the series is also weak and rushed.
In all, I can think of very few story element that surprised me or that are worth mentioning on grounds of praise. Even the ones that were kind of interesting -- such as the replacement double for Lacus Clyne -- were overshadowed by the lackluster quality of everything else (and unsubstantial character development as addressed below). I feel like I should maybe elaborate more here, but there really isn't much else to say, and specifics are hard to point out without invoking spoilers.
CHARACTER - SEED had a fantastic cast of realistic and noteworthy characters. Destiny took those existing characters and warped them into sub par, flat versions of their former selves, or else twisted them so badly that they were hardly recognizable. And Destiny's newly introduced characters hardly make up for it. I found Shinn, our brand new protagonist, incredibly difficult to sympathize with, which is never a good thing. His background seemed far too much like a generic sobstory, and his fixation on his own tragedy made him out to be too narrow-minded and self-righteous. Done right, those might have been interesting qualities for a protagonist, but for Shinn, it only made him incredibly annoying to put up with.
Kira, the initial protagonist of SEED, had been flattening as a character since halfway through the first series. In Destiny, he reached the height of one-sidedness. He is self-righteous to the extreme and seems to think that only his morals and way of dealing with things is the correct one. In some ways, this isn't an entirely bad thing -- it just changes his role within the series, I suppose. He transforms from one of the main protagonists into a more secondary character that contributes one viewpoint without variation. Perhaps he'd just reached the point in his development when he doesn't need to change anymore. Still, it may be frustrating for some to see a once-fleshed out character become so generic, even if he remains a fantastic foil to Athrun.
And Athrun? Of the original cast, he is certainly one that retains a majority of his previous characteristics. His multi-faceted personality is intact, and his emotions remain complex. Once again, he is a very interesting character to follow as he is caught between a conflict of both morals and ethics and the alliance (or lack thereof) between his friends. With both Shinn and Kira on their respective high horses with unwaivering opinions, Athrun serves to contrast with the both of them and again offers the same inner turmoil that he provided in SEED. Essentially, Athrun is the same character that he was tossed into a "new" setting, but as the similarity of his situation forces similar reactions, those who've already seen SEED aren't really getting anything new at all. And then there's the matter of romance...
It's almost comical how many female characters are thrown at Athrun in Destiny; indeed, it seems like all the girls except Stellar are utterly in love with him. This might have been more amusing had he not already had a perfectly good and stable relationship with Cagalli, and had they not been "broken up" for no good reason at all. The entire romantic ordeal seemed like a cheap (and completely pointless) shot at riling up all the fangirls and boys and to reject the already canonized pairing established in SEED. Certainly Athrun and Cagalli's relationship was put under stress in Destiny, but I found a lot of it to be rooted in a lack of communication that was entirely unreasonable. In an age of mechas and space colonization, I can't imagine it would have been too difficult to send a quick email now and again. If nothing else, the number of new suiters for Athrun reinforced his feelings for Cagalli, but the entire subplot was a waste of time because we knew that already.
As well, Cagalli is ridiculously out of character in Destiny. She goes from being a headstrong and independent girl to being a political pawn. Certainly she faces some pressuring circumstances, but considering her development in SEED, it would have made more sense for her to tackle them with head-on rather than...anything she decides to do instead. It's extremely disappointing to see her take such a step back and for her to devolve into such a generic "save me, I'm a weak girl"-type character (especially since we already have one of those in Destiny). It just didn't make sense to me. I'd read somewhere that Destiny had controversially employed a mediocre writer that was in a relationship with one of the producers and that much of the poor character renditions were a direct result of this person, but I can't confirm this for sure. Whatever the reason though, Cagalli was among one of the biggest disappointments here.
But finally, there's the matter of all the other characters. The remaining carry-over characters from SEED are casted as less complicated versions of their former selves, though most of this can be attributed to the fact of their diminished significance beyond practical roles (captains, pilots, ship controls, etc). The other new characters introduced in the series are mostly reincarnations of characters that didn't make it to the sequel (Stellar and her companions take the place of SEED's druggie trio, new masked guy takes the place of old masked guy, Captain Gladys is almost identical to Captain Ramius, etc), which further supports the idea that Destiny is just an uninspired rehash of the original SEED. Otherwise, they were generically casted archetypes, including the blindly loyal devotee, the bubbly spaz girl that is willingly manipulated, and the political figure with ambiguous intentions that aren't really that ambiguous. Certainly a few characters are interesting -- Stellar is actually a fairly intriguing character that grows and changes with the story -- but like any interesting story elements, they're largely overshadowed by everything else.
PS - There is also the matter of the resurrection of a character that dies in SEED. This was completely unnecessary and ruined a perfectly touching and emotional death. Come on, no more of this I-survived-but-lost-my-memory bullshit, please.
ARTSTYLE & ARTWORK - Thankfully, the art and animation did not change between SEED and Destiny. I'm still fond of the particular style used in the series, and everything else stayed in that average range that's perfectly acceptable.
MUSIC - Considering the general failure of the above sections, I was especially grateful that the music in Destiny lived up to SEED's, which I absolutely adored. The composer and most of the artists involved remained the same, and thus, beautiful music ensued. T.M. Revolution returns to perform fantastically upbeat and energetic pieces, including the first opening theme ("Ignited"), just like last time. Nami Tamaki also returns to provide its first end theme "Reason," as well as a number of insert songs. And SEED threw young Nami Tamaki into the j-pop spotlight, Destiny did the same for Hitomi Takahashi, who sang my absolute favorite opening for the series, "Bokutachi no Yukue." Additionally, Rie Tanaka, the voice of both Lacus Clyne and Meer Campbell, sings both a super-energized remix of her "Shizukana Yoruni" from SEED and a slow, peaceful, and absolutely gorgeous new song, "Fields of Hope." And last, but not least, Rie Fu, who did the famous first ending of Bleach ("Life is like a Boat") comes in to sing "I Wanna Go to a Place," possibly my favorite ending theme in Destiny. Seriously, I adore all of the vocal tracks used in this series.
And of course, Sahashi Toshihiko once again provides four new soundtracks worth of fantastic orchestral and piano music for the background. These include updated versions of old, familiar tracks, as well as dozens of new themes that are just as fun. And as a piano player myself, it especially pleased me to see the inclusion of more piano tracks that are actually played within the content of the series since Rey Za Burrel takes Nicol's place as your character-that-can-play-piano. Fun stuff all around, guys. :D
VOICE ACTING - All of the actors that reprised their roles from SEED were once again excellent. I still love Akira Ishida as Athrun Zala. Of the new roles, Stellar stood out to me as a pretty awesome performance given the strangeness of her character. Other than that, the rest of the voices did well to fit their part, but weren't anything particularly memorable. As far as I know, Destiny hasn't even been released Stateside (probably because of SEED's strangely dismal failure), but it did have a Canadian release, so I assume there's a dub out there that I haven't seen. I imagine it'd be pretty much the same as the SEED dub though, which was very average.
OVERALL - Almost everything about Gundam SEED Destiny annoyed me, and though I'm not sure how high my expectations were in the first place, I don't think I could have been more disappointed with this sequel. Other than the technical aspects (sound and animation), nothing lived up to the standards set by its predecessor. Maybe if it were judged as a standalone work, it would score a little higher (especially on the character scale), but as a direct sequel to a series, I don't really see the point. It astounds me sometimes that some fans of SEED actually enjoyed Destiny, 'cause in the end, Destiny, for me, only served to reinforce the idea that sequels to perfectly good series are utterly unnecessary.
Alternative Titles
Synonyms: Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED DESTINY
Japanese: 機動戦士ガンダムSEED DESTINY
More titlesInformation
Type:
TV
Episodes:
50
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Oct 9, 2004 to Oct 1, 2005
Premiered:
Fall 2004
Broadcast:
Unknown
Studios:
Sunrise
Source:
Original
Duration:
24 min. per ep.
Rating:
R - 17+ (violence & profanity)
Statistics
Ranked:
#34092
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Popularity:
#1971
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108,361
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1,100
Available AtResourcesStreaming Platforms | Reviews
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Your Feelings Categories Jun 16, 2008
Sometimes, sequels to popular series work. Most of the time, they don't. Destiny was one of the latter.
STORY - The fact that this is a direct sequel to a Gundam series already puts Destiny's story at a disadvantage. Think about it -- all Gundam series start with war and end with resolution. Thus, SEED had resolution, and the only way for Destiny to begin is by destroying that resolution. And it has to be a cheap and forced-feeling destruction because there's hardly two year's difference between the end of the first series and the start of the sequel since they wanted to reuse a majority ... Sep 6, 2008
Destiny is a tale of two shows, the show it could have been versus whatever the hell the staff of the show presented it as. To get to the point, I’ll point out the shows main problems immediately. The show’s pacing, character development and plot I felt were all horrible and on top of that unoriginal.
Destiny started off better off than any Gundam series I’ve watched so far. While most series in Gundam canon usually start off slow and tedious. Destiny gave you some brief, but useful enough introductions. The age old practice of stealing Gundams right from under the ... Aug 12, 2015
The Gundam meta series is colossal in size, and the fanbase splits are arguably even bigger than the franchise itself. Get any two Gundam fans into a room, and you're bound to find some difference or another that would make a big enough difference.
You have fans of Universal Century, 00, Wing, G, Turn A, SEED and X, all of whom like something about their respective series/timelines that they feel other fans cannot see. Most/almost all of the above fans, however, including fans of SEED, have a notorious reputation for particularly hating Destiny, which is rather surprising since Gundam fans are notorious for not really being able ... Dec 28, 2009
Important: Forgive my english please. As a french guy it's not always very easy for me.
If you're wondering why a review on Destiny before Seed, I will answer. Seed is good and fun. It's not perfect, but it's a good Gundam show. Now, let's jump to the main topic please...Destiny. I'm warning you, I'm spoiling a lot of things, so if you hate that, just skip my review. Oh and also, this review's gonna be much longer than my other review. Story: Oh boy...Okay let's do this. When I started Destiny, I was hoping that the first half of the show will be more paced that ... Jul 12, 2010
Gundam SEED Destiny is a direct Sequel to Gundam SEED. It's been rated as the worst Gundam anime ever. I highly beg to differ. It's not much as a sequel, but as its own anime, it's outstanding.
STORY - 8/10 To be honest, you shouldn't under any circumstances watch Destiny directly after finishing SEED. You'll see nothing but the same, and with SEED always stuck in your head, the good parts of Destiny's story are going to be left out. In fact; forget everything you know about Gundam SEED except for the coordinator-natural stuff, as well as the guys who played some large roles in the ... Nov 6, 2016
Potentially one of the best turned to easily one of the worst; the best description for Gundam SHITTO Destiny.
*SPOILERS FOR MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM SEED DESTINY! I WILL COVER THE HD REMASTER.* It's not a secret that I'm not the biggest fan of SEED. Even still, there's no doubt that the SEED series as a whole could`ve been epic. Season 1 laid the foundation for an even more dramatic and depressing Gundam series to spring up, on the level of Zeta, in more ways than one. This quote represents this perfectly. SEED Destiny in particular also made itself an interesting template that, under the right hands, would`ve ... Dec 16, 2018
Gundam Seed is one of the most beloved Gundam series of all time. Ever since it’s a success back in 2002 it has gained a big following especially in Japan where it was most successful. The series has been praised for amazing music, engaging plot twist as well telling an intriguing story where two close friends are in the opposite side of the battlefield fighting each other. While Gundam Seed Season 1 didn’t impress me all that much with its storytelling and characters it was still a fun watch despite being average. Once I was done with Gundam Seed I decided to check out the
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Mar 20, 2008
When I finalized this review note that I have watched Gundam Seed 5 times and Gundam Seed Destiny 4 times.Actually I watched GSD first so I know both the point of view of those who have watched the prequel first and the ones who have watched the sequel only.
Story (7/10) Okay, GSD's story is definitely a sequel, so instead of the setting being introduced the we are just given the background of the time skip. It is basically a continuation of the Cosmic Era and here are the questions: Who are the new characters and what will they play? Where are the old characters and will they be ... May 11, 2009
Gundam Seed Destiny is sequel to highly popular Gundam Seed and takes place in same universe.
Story: GSD story is basically same as its older brother. Again Cordinators and Naturals have war though the reasons are little different from Seed. Story was almost direct copy from Seed and it takes my points down, although I still liked it because CE universe has so good athmospehere and lot of potential. If you are not fan of Seed story you probably don't like Destiny story either. On the positive note in my opinion Destiny had better pacing than Seed. Not so slow start. Although this may be influenced ... Mar 29, 2011
After the success of "Gundam Seed", the follow up series "Gundam Seed Destiny" is often seen as a bit of a flop. However, there does exist a handful of people who think it's a very under-rated anime... and it just so happens that I'm one of them. In fact, I'm actually ASTOUNDED by how under-rated this show is, so here's my long winded take on "Why Gundam Seed Destiny Is At Least As Good As Gundam Seed", in which I shall attempt to bore anyone with opposing views into submission with the sheer weight of my wall of text :D
I can think of several reasons ... Jul 7, 2012
Gundam SEED Destiny stronger than the first series — Gundam SEED. In it we meet again, so beloved by us earlier, but have grown up characters, and new.
Characters, and mecha are the same as we left them in the first season. But as time passed. Our friends have matured. Although, not all, as turned out to be something taken out of the lesson of their former errors. Every word, every action — before the eyes of that same Gundam, just changed the appearance of new characters and the idea that I was sick Chairman. We see events through the eyes of others, on the other ... Apr 23, 2014
As the name suggests, Gundam Seed Destiny is a sequel to the popular Gundam Seed. Now Gundam Seed was the first Gundam series that I ever watched, so I was happy to find out that there was a sequel for it. Sadly, the sequel disappoints greatly with regards to the plot and characters.
Story: 4 The plot revolves an anti-coordinator group known as the Blue Cosmos/ Logos (Think KKK) that happen to be in charge of the Earth Alliance forces (Who thought that would be a good idea?). Due to a series of incidents that were caused by this group, the Earth Alliance ends up going to ... Sep 6, 2010
Before I talk about this I must point out I, personally, am a hardcore fan of the great Gundams of the 80's and 90's. These had the best story telling, along with characters and mecha that showed that you didn't need all the huge explosions just for a grand stand to be epic. Also for the record I have a burning hatred for this particular series and this may contain spoilers that I can't review this without saying so please bear with me.
Story: If you have watched Gundam SEED you should already know the back story for this, seeing as it's a direct sequel to Gundam ... Sep 2, 2009
GSD tells us a humanistic truth that one's fate is not predetermined but rather, it's in the individual to create his future.
directed by mitsuo fukuda, GSD is the sequel to GS. With a sequel comes new characters and new mobile suits balancing mecha action with the plot development. character artwork was above average to good at some point, you can easily spot differences when the characters turn at some angles although this is only a minor. mobile suits can be commended for those intricate parts and structures. the only majow flaw one can easily comment was the repetitive mobile suit action scene you see from one ... Jun 13, 2011
I said i hated the first seed, but that had a few points which were bearable as a Gundam fan. To speak of it simply this is a show you would buy on DVD just so you can have the pleasure of stomping it into a million pieces then watch it burn in a fire.
there is nothing to speak of in terms of characters and story. Going straight into one of the worst things they could have done to Gundam as a franchise are the flashy war machines which seem to work on magic and pixy dust. In any of the older gundams everything felt ... Apr 15, 2011
...or we can all agree that there are people in the world who just don't know how to write good stories.
Gundam is "one of those franchises;" like Macross and Transformers. The toys are usually the main money-making machine. But the (animated) stories behind it are usually what sends said franchise to either "legendary status" or it's own funeral. Seed Destiny, which is more like a badly-written repeat to Seed than a sequel, nearly BURIED it for Bancolding$ (Bandai Namco Holdings / $unrise) in terms of anything Gundam. Here's a list of what went wrong: * Mitsuo Fukuda and his "ball-&-chain" wife (whose the head ... Jun 5, 2011
The Gundam Seed became popular to the fans and its natural for the series to get a 2nd season. Expect most of the characters from the 1st season to be included with some new addition. Seed Destiny introduces a new protagonist to the story named Shin. Of course Kira and Athrun still plays a major role to the story. But in comparison to the 1st season, the story became a little bit of dull on the 2nd season. The story is straight forward and the plot is something you would expect. It feels like the Seed Destiny was forced to be made just to please
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Sep 28, 2009
What do you get when you take a show that wasn't all that great to beginning with, then make a sequel that makes the first show superior? You get Gundam Seed Destiny my friends.
While Gundam Seed is not that great of a show, it's sequel Seed Destiny is just as bad if not worse for three main reason, character focus, plot focus, and character development. Character focus - The first main problem with Seed Destiny is the character focus. The series can not determine who it should focus on more Shinn, or Athrun and Kira. To give a prime example on how character ... Aug 4, 2009
Story: Poor, because during a scene, they reuse SEED scenes.
Art: Nice, just like SEED. Sound: The music was good. Character: There was good SEED Chara devolopment but most of the new chara are bad. Enjoyment: Dreadful, because, the reused scenes and poor new Characters make it bad. Overall: This is dreadful. Notes: This is possibly the dullest anime you can see. This is not worthy of being the sequel to SEED. Dec 7, 2013
Some people hate this , some people love this, but i'm in the middle , I can't love this like seed but I can't hate I it either.
What I love and hate !!! Characters :Although most Gundam Seed fans seem to worship at the temple of Kira Yamamoto , I found myself hating him not only in GS but in gsd , there no character development with him , in GS all he did was get stronger with more battle and whine ,and in gsd all he did was fight and sprout his idealistic crap . not sure if this is ... |