Wasted Potential

happyakazukin

I think the reason Gundam Seed fails is because the creators weren't too sure of what they wanted it to be. Do they aim to please mecha fanboys or focus on the deeper story? When you strip Gundam Seed to it's bones, the key ideas are very decent. They're interesting, intriguing and ultimately entertaining. The execution of these ideas aren't half bad either. Where Gundam S fails is in focusing on Mecha battles too much. It's not that Mecha battles are something I dislike, the ones in Eureka Seven and Neon Genesis Evangelion prove to be entertaining. Why? Because they are relatively short and animated with detail, fluidity and with a motivation to get a specific response out of the viewer (fear, excitement...). It's also clear they want to work each scene to it's potential. Gundam Seed fails because it has WAY too many Mecha scenes- mostly irrelevant to the progression of the story- and they go on for WAY too long. 80% of an episode would be spent on these fights, and people at desks going "People firing at so and so location" "Fire!" and "Evacuate situation" .... it becomes repetitive, TEDIOUS, annoying and plain boring!

The characters and story are the best part of the show. Kira, Cagalli, Lacus, Flay are all unique and posses their own backgrounds. The side characters also prove being likable. They're generally well developed and well rounded. I found the character interaction scenes a lot more interesting and entertaining than the fight scenes. HOWEVER, the show focuses on these interactions and relationships 20% of the time.

It's so FRUSTRATING because if the creators thought through each episode a bit better, it would have been 24 or 13 episodes long- but each scene would add something. Each scene would be interesting. The fight scenes would be a LOT better. They could have spent more money improving the animation and sound with this too. Overall, you would have something that deserves 8/10. Sadly, Gundam Seed is just a lump of wasted potential.

The artwork is very strong. Each character looks different to the other. The backgrounds are passable. What I thought was disappointing was their use of color. The colors are generally too bright and detract from the scenes. They don't set mood very well. If the colors were a little duller, like Evangelion, it would have came off a lot darker. The characters don't move around too much, so the animation is flat in that department, but this can be blamed on the length of the show. Cells are repeated in fight scenes- soon enough you see the SAME fight scene over and over... it's just like: GET ON WITH IT.

The music for opening and closing credits are EXCELLENT! It's a lot of JPop, but well composed (Yuki Kajuira is a genius)... it's not fluffy pop, but well sung fast paced numbers. See Saw has beautiful music, and all the theme songs are incredibly catchy. 9/10 What else? The dub is decent enough- nothing sticks out as being awful, besides maybe the wooden quality of the performances, but this is because of the dubbing process in general. Go for the Japanese.

Overall, I would love to see someone edit the show into something shorter and see what happens to the entertainment and re-watch value.

score 5/10

happyakazukin 1 May 2009

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2060411/