Gundam Seed Recommended

Publisher
BEEZ
Director
Mitsuo Fukuda
Production
Sotsu Agency, Sunrise
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
50 Episodes/25 Minutes Each
Year
2002

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Volume 8

By Joseph (Joe) Wood
2nd Dec 05

For the past seven volume Mobile Suit Gundam SEED has offered as all the hallmarks of a classic Gundam series. As the series begins to move toward is conclusion you’d be expecting things continue as they have been, yet in volume eight the tides begin to shift and old alliances start change.

“In the Name of Justice” (episode thirty-six), upon returning to ZAFT’s homeland Athrun soon learns that his fiancé, Lacus, is suspected of helping a spy steal the new “Freedom” Gundam and that her and her father have vanished. Athrun begins to search for Lacus himself and when h finds her, she tells him Kira is still alive. Meanwhile after suffering great physical and psychological suffering trying to defend, and at the same time flee, the JOSH-A base the crew of the Archangel are happy to see Kira alive and well face to face. Kira tells them he is not fighting for Earth anymore nor the PLANTs, and unable to return to the Earth forces the Archangel sends a plea to ORB. “Divine Thunder” and the remaining episodes sees ORB told to pick a side by Earth unless it be declared an enemy. Refusing to give up it’s neutrality ORB must defend it’s self against the Earth forces, the Archangel agrees to help defend it. The Earth forces send their latest Mobile Suits into the fray; Kira has a hard time battling them. Athrun told to retrieve the Freedom is given the “Justice” and told to kill the pilot and anyone who has come into contact with the weapon, Lacus’ words still echo in Athrun’s mind and he is forced to make a choice on where his loyalties lay.

The Mecha Otakus out their will be wondering about the new Gundams. All of which are pretty impressive. The pilots of the Earth forces new prototypes seem a bit unhinged. The reasons for this are hinted at but the answer seems to lie in the next two volumes of the series.

The change in direction while it seems rather late in the series, shouldn’t be too unexpected. It would have been extremely difficult to keep the rivalry between Athrun and Kira going after the events in the previous volume. The choices made here seem the right ones, yet there is a feeling of wither things can be wrapped up neatly enough in the next ten episodes to give a satisfying conclusion. Then again, with the Cosmic Era timeline looking set to follow along similar lines as the Universal Century, what with Gundam SEED: Destiny TV series and the Gundam SEED: Astray manga series and possibly more spin-offs perhaps the series won’t end with a conclusive ending.

Volume eight of Gundam SEED takes the series in a rather brave direction considering how late it is. Wither this will pay of remains to be seen in the next two volumes, yet hopes and expectations are certainly high, considering what the series has been through. Although if we don’t see Commander Le Creuset without his mask in, or before, the final volume, or learn about his relationship with Lt. La Flaga, I’ll scream.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: English French Japanese Dub, English French German Polish Subtitles, Trailers, BEEZ Catelouge

Release information: Publisher: Beez Released: December 5th 2005 Classification: 12 Running Time: 125mins

Notes: There's a lot less on the this DVD than their was on some of the earlyer ones in the series. Again the episodes do make up for this but lets hope their are a few more extras on the final two discs.

-- Joseph (Joe) Wood 2nd Dec 05

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