Ranked #991

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny

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. read more

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 enemies' noses was fine, I chalked that up to them paying homage or going with a tradition. And then you were thrown headlong into the action. Pacing was pretty good throughout the first half, while they developed this somewhat annoying formula of action, followed by character development episodes, the action was good enough to make you put up with the way stuff was spaced out. A particularly enjoyable part of the show was the interaction between Athrun and Shinn. Though whiny, generally ignorant and pretty arrogant, he showed signs of hope, realizing at times that Athrun’s advice and tutelage had helped him for the better.

In the second half of the series, the trend continued, but with far less interesting action. The Gundams became over powered and the later battles seemed inconsistent and unfair at times. Also, the change in focus about half way through meant that you had to sit through the same babbling that permeated the original SEED, but this time its just a rehash of their already stated opinions and can’t be counted as character development. Clip shows and flashbacks were also used EXCESSIVELY and killed pacing. The worst pacing came towards the end, as entire episodes seemed wasted on minor characters or minor developments and MORE flashbacks, only to have a very short, rushed feeling ending that seemed to have a lot of out of character moments, but that’s an issue for the next paragraph.

Destiny showed signs of good characters and good character development. Instead of getting a patchwork group of out of place soldiers and refugees, you get professional soldiers in their element, facing extreme challenges (except for Arthur, I don’t know how he became an XO). Durrandal started to become my favorite character that, even though he showed signs of being evil, was just a very smart, sharp character with a lot of charm and who made a lot of sense. Shinn though a professional soldier is whiny and arrogant. Captain Gladys seems like a character with logic and a good amount of insight into the world. Athrun shows up as a conflicted character, who ends up being a mentor to Shinn. And tries to show him what is wrong with his impulsive and arrogant attitude.

Unfortunately, the interesting characters of Destiny are replaced halfway through with the much less interesting characters of the original SEED. And then the previous cast gets a serious downgrade in on-screen time, skills and even intelligence. The characters from SEED seem like less than objective observers, until they start meddling and screw everyone over. The characters of Kira and Lacus show no change, nor room for it. Athrun changes, but only in the way a pendulum does. It takes him an entire series to come to the same realization he had in SEED, war is bad, no one should be killed and hatred will destroy the future. The characters come off as almost god-like, knowing all, looking down on the world and generally being untouchable, literally.

As for the new cast-away cast, once they are pushed to the side, you don’t know whether the director wants you to root for them or not. They go from saving the day, to be viewed as oppressors in the span of an episode. On top of that, their skills and intelligence seem to change as the episodes go along. In one episode, they are able to practically fight off the entire Orb military by themselves, later in the series they are unable to take down Orb even with the entire ZAFT military behind them and with Shinn and Rey using upgraded, super powerful Gundams. The Alliance was able to take down Orb in the original series even with Kira, Athrun and the Archangel present, yet ZAFT receives a brutal punch to the nose and retreats. This is also in contrast to when they fought the Alliance earlier at Heaven’s Base. With no less than 5 Destroy Gundams (mountainous Gundam death machines with more weapons and armor by itself than most militaries), they pretty easily take their objectives. Even earlier than that in the series, one Destroy Gundam was enough to hold off both Kira and Shinn by itself.

The worst case is the final battle, where everything comes to a head. The same ZAFT that pretty easily defeats the entire Alliance, and takes their super weapon for themselves, gets a resounding defeat by a pretty small Orb force in what has to be the worst Gundam ending ever. Their ace pilots are easily chopped up, the Minerva is defeated, not by the Archangel, but by a restored Mu La Flaga in his overpowered (Hyaku Shiki rip-off) mobile suit. And in the end, three major characters on the ZAFT side decide to cash it in and commit suicide, while two more lie on the surface of the moon, next to their destroyed mobile suits crying.

My final gripe is with the overall plot of the show. Sure it started off pretty simple, but it then threw a pretty nice twist at viewers, by dropping a massive celestial body (Junius Seven) on the Earth at the beginning arc of the show instead of during the last two episodes like most shows. Great! Then the plot goes into the basic war itself between the Alliance and Z.A.F.T. Once the Archangel starts screwing with things though, it becomes a slower more convuluted plot. And when it gets near the end, it just seems to become nonsensical and chaotic. It really isn’t that complicated and there aren’t many surprises.

If the point of the show was to show that repeating one’s mistakes was foolish and stupid, then this show proved that perfectly. Then didn’t just repeat the stakes of the original SEED, which was a good show in its own right, it doubled them. Great character and mecha designs and potential are wasted by the flawed plot and logic. And this show has left me disappointed to say the least.
read more

Story: Although I thoroughly enjoyed Gundam Seed, Gundam Seed Destiny was not what I had hoped all together. My only objections were that the ending seemed VERY rushed and everything happened way too quickly in the last episode. And the ending is a really critical part of any anime, so it's important to really take care with it. I don't feel it was done as well as it's prequel. However the remainder of the story was great. I was very happy with some of the small plot twists that once again separated the character's beliefs and made them have to realize what they are really trying to fight for. I was really excited when select characters decided they needed to join the action on the battle fields once again if they wanted to see an end to the war. One thing I did notice though, there were a few plot repeats, just in different scenarios. However, don't let that make you not want to watch because there are plenty of other great plot points.

Art: The art of Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny has always been fantastic. The character designs are still my all time favourite. I love the design of the eyes and the hair styles. Clothes are also something I thought looked awesome. And of course, the Gundams look spectacular. Even better looking Gundams in Gundam Seed Destiny. Not much else to say here.

Sound: A similar set of sounds and music from Gundam Seed, but there were a few opening songs I didn't like very much. I felt that in Gundam Seed the openings were very fitting to the mood of the anime in its current episode, but I can't say the same for Gundam Seed Destiny. Especially for the last set of episodes. However, some of the ending songs were amazing and I really liked them a lot. I thought they were very fitting, just like Gundam Seed did once before. Somehow the ending just always fits in with what's going on in the end.

Character: I was happy to see certain characters return, and then be even further developed. And then to add new characters on top of that. However I don't think they did as good a job in Gundam Seed Destiny in defining the newer character's beliefs and motives. But for the most part, I was very happy with the cast. Not much else here.

Enjoyment: I enjoyed Gundam Seed Destiny all the way until the ending, as I said I felt it was rushed. (This is excluding the remake of the last episode). I loved every minute of it as I did Gundam Seed. Sadly that's all I have to compare it to. I had hoped Gundam Seed Destiny would have been better, and maybe a bit longer. But I was happy with most of everything.

Overall: Overall I thought Gundam Seed Destiny was a great addition to the Cosmic Era of Gundam. As you can see, I marked a 9 for most categories. I was very happy that I could enjoy yet another fantastic 50 episodes of the characters I grew so fond of in Gundam Seed. The battle scenes were great, as always, and I really enjoyed seeing certain characters come back to the action. It's a great anime nevertheless and I wish that everyone enjoy it as much, or greater, than I. read more

This anime left me with one of the biggest feelings of "meh" ever. While it had good animation and fairly good sound, the story flows like a river of tires.

Alright, you have 1 second to name an anime where having two stories has been a good idea.

...

Time's up. Well, now we can proceed. Why are there two stories? I mean, I know it was sort of the case in Gundam Seed, but it was only one story with views from both sides. They made it work so as to make it unclear which side was the good one (a nice touch of realism). The story here just got tangled up, and didn't give enough time for the characters to develop properly. Maybe that's a lower priority on some people's list (cliched romance and action being on top, of course >_>), but in that case, they don't understand that if we don't care about the characters, we don't care about anything.

Also, it's immensely frustrating when animes switch main characters for no reason at all, especially when the new character is an angsty, annoying 16-year-old. The writers seemed to have some funny ideas about character development. For example, rather than really letting us get to know Shinn, they tell us why he's such a crybaby in an attempt to make us feel sorry for him. In the first season (Gundam Seed, may as well consider it all one series), Kira was awesome. He didn't cry constantly (until later on, when it started to get really annoying), and his asskickery provided good entertainment. I mean, in reality, giving us the characters past and calling it character development is an extremely juvenile way of doing it. I know I shouldn't be bringing other animes into the mix here, but out of all the animes I've watched, the characters in One Piece stand out to me. It's because they let us get to know the characters through their unique personalities and letting us see what they are like in different situations; how they react. This helps us get to know characters. Why am I going on about this? It's simple: Destiny fails at this by putting the characters through the same thing over and over again.

The characters go through the story without ever managing to form any sort of meaningful relationship with any of the other characters. Even the well-developed relationships between the 4 main characters in the last series are just flat-out ignored here in favour of these whiny, annoying new ones. Sure, the scenario is interesting, but the sub-par execution of it all just drags it down faster than you can say "We're totally not appealing to an audience of rocks." read more

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 part of the story?
What will be the new conflict since much of it was resolved already?

There are many questions that was left from the prequel and many more arises from GSD. Yet I think it did very well in making an exciting extension story and the characters' interactions make the series very interesting.

It again tackles the issue of war-its effects and its very existence. And the strong dialogue make way for philosophical clashes and the continuous conflict of duty and humanity. The characters were pretty much torn in between many things, so not only the action and battles make way for suspense but definitely the drama too. Most of the time, mecha actions are enjoyable and excellent.

It has many positive attributes but its flaws outweighs its goodness or vice versa. In short, many fans found it disappointing: The story was strong at first, but it was degraded by incoherence and drag- the weak characters greatly contribute (will be explained later).

The story that was supposed to be two sides with good ideals fighting for a good cause amid some really evil guys turned out to be a "fan war" where the more loved characters are the ones glorified. The sides were once equal and then suddenly the loved ones are made goody-goody while the other is being made "evil." Then the worst part is the dragging anti-climatic lines (or endless flashbacks) of characters where they justify why they fight and why they oppose the other. Its purpose is to explain what they think- but as a critic, too much destroys the character of the show itself, add hypocrisy and were just made to really emphasize the supposed to be "good guys" of the show.


Art (9/10)

Surely the animation of this sequel is impressive especially to the fans of Seed. It has higher quality and more consistency. It did not fail in imaging a lot of memorable and dramatic scenes..The machines here are so much cooler and it has less reused action scenes. Still, like Seed, there are times where characters look like each other.

Sound (10/10)

GSD's sounds are in my top list; for me, its music is one of the best in anime, almost seemingly comparable to Cowboy Bebop in terms non repetitiveness. The sounds are so mecha and transports you to a different dimension while in dramatic scenes the music creates the perfect mood. All its opening and ending songs suit the series at all aspects. Also, it variates its songs and image music so well that the melody stays in your head though it creates different moods. Most of my favorite soundtracks came from this anime.

Character (6/10)

For me GSD is one of the series that disappoints a lot of viewers. It failed to portray its philosophical themes because of its weakness in its characters.

The character of the show itself (as explained earlier) becomes weaker after the middle- it is degraded by fan service and "god-wisdom" lines. It has the most unnecessary flashbacks I have seen in my anime watching life,flashback episodes, flashbacks from Seed and itself. Because of that, it looks so "trying hard" to be deep and psychological.

The NEW characters are clearly introduced at the beginning and the viewers expect their development and role. But GSD failed miserably at this: the main character lacks strength and growth which is very necessary for a drama plot. Most of the secondary characters don't pretty much add up to the overall drama and many find them insignificant. Of course, there are very interesting and lovable characters (like Stellar and Dullindal) and it seems that they were the ones that are saving GSD from doom.

I must also note that the connection of the main protagonist, Shinn, and Stellar is probably the best asset of the series and is a very good psychological drama story.

The RETURNING characters are pretty much developed already but their conflict with the new ones is interesting. They are supposed to be only part of history, but the writers made them the makers of history because of their popularity. Many fans will expect to see their loved characteristics again but GSD failed those fans by either adding angst or perfecting them to the point that they are annoyingly unrealistic. And lastly, if the viewers are not familiar with them they will ask : When did they become the main characters?

Moreover, new mobile suits just sprout out of nowhere just to create a "cooler model"

Enjoyment (7/10)

For Seed fans it is quite enjoyable but disappointing.This sequel was made to make the audience anticipate the appearance of the Seed characters and how they will affect the new characters' lives, and it did succeed it a way. It may quench the thirst of hungry Gundam Seed enthusiasts but may make them hate the sequel for tampering with their favorite characters happy lives.

Originality is also an issue, for by reading about Zeta Gundam I was disappointed by the "copying and making it a lot better."

Personally I really love Stellar and I just can't forget her and this series is a little bit more romantic and political than Seed.

OVERALL: 7 read more

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 focus should be done, lets take a look at the series Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. In the show Char and Amuro from the original show appear however they appear in more mentor roles for Kamille instead of trying to hog all the spot light, not to say that there were times that the show focused more on them. However this was kept to smaller amounts of time. This show however can't make up it's mind on who they should focus on more. While yes it is good to see Athrun and Kira again, we don't need to spend episode after episode of them doing their own thing or having the sole focus on them.

Plot focus- Another major problem is plot focus. One of the major problems with Seed was it's dependency on flashbacks and clip shows. Sadly this does not get fixed, but gets worse with Destiny. While flashbacks can be helpful for shows, every episode does not need a flashback, nor does a series need to see clip shows all the time. If Destiny would have focused more on the plot and less on flashbacks the plot would have been more consistent and would have been better.

Character development - The last major problem with Destiny is the character development. While some characters do get development in this series, it becomes few and far between overall. Most of the characters stay the same from the first time you meet them, or have some changes but overall don't change a lot.

Overall Destiny feels like a lot of wasted potential. The show had the ability to be a great sequel to Seed, but instead wasted it on flashbacks, and inconsistent character focus.
read more

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 trough that I watched this straight after seed so I was settled with universe and with most of the characters.

Art:
Art is truly phenomional. Gundams looked again cool like in Seed and everything was well animated. No complains

Sound:
This is easily best part in this series. Best anime OST ever in my opinion. All opening and ending songs were really well fitted in the series and insert music was really amazing. I almost recommend to watch this series for its music even if you don't like any other thing in the series.

Characters:
I had really mixed feelings about this series characters. I of course liked all old characters and even some new ones were great (like dullindal and meer) but then again I almost hated some like Shinn and Stellar. Altough because I hated shinn I wanted to see him ketting his ass kicked so it was in a way good for the series. Still I will give this one point lower than seed because most of the new characters were shallow and couple of them were annoying.

Enjoyment:
In spite of all negative sides in this series compared to Seed I still enjoyed this series a lot. It had very good action scenes and even some likable drama. First half of the series was again worse than later one like in seed but especially the last 10 episodes were great again. I would have complained about the ending but luckily Final plus ova gave me better ending.

Overall:
Even though this series didn't rose at the same level as Seed I still liked it a lot and now I am hoping that they some time in distant future will make that movie. =D (probably won't =( ) read more

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 episode to another.
GSD is a fine addition to the ever-growing and popular gundam saga. i must say that my heart really aches to see the drama and despair that war brings to the lives of every individual, despite being fictional, especially to the characters. this series greatly conveys that there are no wins in a war but a lot of loses and a hope for a peaceful future.. read more

Can one of the greatest Gundams have a great sequel? Yes it can. And it's called Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny!

This is one of the few animes where I was expecting to hate everything about it. Already, people disliked SEED, and then this appears!
When I watched the first episode, I was surprised that it was pretty good!
It slow down a bit until episode 6-7, and then it was a BLAST!!! It has been forever since I had enjoyed an anime this good!!!

Story: 10/10

What made like SEED was that, not only were the themes good and executed well. They made it character driven MORE than action driven.

And that's the thing that probably made it unpopular with the US audience: It wasn't the traditional Gundam way...

SEED dealt with friendship and genocide, and asked us if too types of beings can accept each other unconditionally. It did all this, the traditional way: Intro, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Conclusion.

SEED Destiny deals with different matters.

The reason Coordinators existed, was because people "desired" everything! Rau explained desires cause conflict which turns to war which turns to death. Therefore, humans and their wants spell doom in the end.
This war philosophy was what made SEED the masterpiece that it is!

So... what if humans "didn't" desire anything??? What if we just lived according to "plan", to a path already laid out for us??? Hmmm...

SEED Destiny is told in a different style than SEED.
First off, it starts off with a fast and and easy to understand beginning.
Second, while SEED is told through the eyes of Kira mostly. Destiny is mostly told through the eyes of Athrun.

While watching SEED, you were always aware on how different Naturals and Coordinators were, just by KNOWING which person was which! It created a different feel for the series.

SEED Destiny lacks that feeling, which is a plus. It makes you think of them as "people" rather than "superhumans". This in turn, makes it seem more human drama-ish, than a war duking out with one another.

Unlike SEED, you actually get to witness firsthand how the 2nd war starts.

The actual plot of SEED Destiny is laid out in plot twist motion. Where events happen and proceed, until something unexpected happens and the shifts into a new direction. This makes it difficult to discern who is the "real" villain behind it all...
It also makes the main characters seem more human since they can only do what they can based on what they know so far.

One thing I will point out is that the show changes drastically in pacing around 38 - 41. Many complain on this being the biggest weak point of the series.

To me, it was actually refreshing! You get to see what's happening in the eyes of every lead slowly and intelligently. Proving again, that the leads won't abide to every little thing that happens.
The last 10 episodes are the slowest of the entire series. Sure it might be a little anticlimactic it smoothly leads you into what has been going on while at the same time presenting it in a unique and understandable way!
This is MUCH better, than having everything explained in a battle stretching out in 3 episode fight scene...

As for the actual ending, we are reminded on how humans are such a danger to everything, and how some people (specifically Kira) are incarnations of the darkest of human behavior.

Art: 10/10

While mostly everything resembles SEED apparel, they do add a couple of different things to the mix.

1. A trademark of SEED was to recycle battle scenes for the multiple space fights occuring throughout. Here: all gone. To some, it might be a little weird having somthing that we just got used to.

But in this way too, it makes what fight scenes available even more spectacular and vivid!
To be honest, I think there are even LESS fights than there were in SEED!!!

To counter this, they make the fights beautiful, awesome, each a different way, and a little drawn out.

Also the characters that were in the first series look noticeably older and mature.

Sound: 10/10

Ahhh, another perfect musical anime score...

This is probably the ONLY anime where I liked the END songs more than I did the OP!

To reflect the titles' meaning, they picked artists who were just starting to make a name for themselves (the "seeds" of our future...).

Background music is both a little reminiscent, but for the majority, a completely different score.

The emotional scenes a better expressed with this music to, since in SEED they used the same song (nothing wrong with that...), and created a surreal feeling to each and every misfortune that occurred.

Character: 10/10

In SEED, the plot was initially slow, to properly acquaint you with their large ensemble of characters.

In here, since we already know many of the characters, the plot takes off better, making the enjoyment factor go up and up!!!

It's not uncommon for sequels to have their leads act like immature people like they were in the beginning...

Well, Destiny surprises you and SHOWS you how much our old heroes have changed during SEED!
We have a new "hero" named Shinn who is impulsive, hot-tempered, vengeful, and a know-it-all.
Comparing him to Kira and Athrun, it's easy to show how strong they are.

The villain of the series is a little less charismatic than SEED's but he does explain his actions much better and convincingly than any other anime at the time.

The characters are just as awesome and as profound as the first one!!!

Enjoyment: 10/10

I mean this when I say it: I WAS NEVER BORED!!!

Every SINGLE episode was fun and suspenseful!

No action? Fine, I'll see how the plot goes. No plot? Fine, I'll see how the characters goes.

There was something to keep me entertained during the whole thing, which is more than I can say for a LOT of series!

Overall: 10/10

Why is this series hated so much?

It has so MUCH merit... It's rare we see a plot go further with more depth.

In real life, things happen even when something ends. When wars end, sooner or later, another one will come too...

SEED Destiny does this boldly, and pleasingly!

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny is one of the greatest Gundams, one of the greatest mechas, one of the greatest sequels, and...

...one of the greatest animes ever...

+ One of the best animes ever, nearly every element is at it's best.
+ Starts off strong and informed, eases into a philosphical and still passionate story, and ends with a slow, not so rough (a.k.a. a "little" anticlimactic), but very satisfying ending.

- Some will reject the sequel completely (it makes it's prequels' ending a little nonexistant), the order in events is unique but puzzling.
- When the pacing dies down during the end, it might affect viewers... read more

]one short comment :
Oh please....
Stop copying star wars mixed with dorama(or telenovela , precisely) story . Be wicked , be creative , be cruel , be smart and cool .

The review

Story :
weak but enjoyable , maybe Gundam Seed Destiny is one of the biggest guilty pleasure ,with that "light" story and simple characterization , GSD is enjoyable and childishly fun.

Picture :
Wow!Very the island + starwars . (Well , i'm a total moviegoers) A futuristic view with shocking colours and uniforms . The character design matched the setting perfectly and it's simply "clean"

Score :
Too spacey ... the electronica sound is a bit' disturbing and not as "match" as Gundam SEED's score .

Cinematography & directing :
A simplicity with medium tempo , just like any other anime.

Costume design :
Totally creative , they can make the costume matched the anime a lot ,that ZAFT uniform really eye-candy and cosplayable .

Character :
-Every character , especially Athrun really open his natural side , a less-cool side .
-But , i see a weakness in Kira , [size="3"]he's changing to a -Gandhi[/size="3"] . Well , a cry-baby Kira is better than a Gandhi Kira .
- Lacus is too polite & soft here , she need too open her voice more .
-Shinn character is totally unclear one ,but that unclear-ness really made Shinn a more humanism character .
- Cagalli need to appear more and more , showing up her tomboy side , a more mature one and more speak-out , she need to appear as an iconic , quote-able character , not to be Damsel In Distress .
- The rest of the characters are not comment-able enough .

Overall :
A total guilty pleasure that you and your lil' siblings will love to watch


read more