Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny

Probably my best anime of all time. Well I kinda do like Gundam seed better than Destiny, but this was pretty much my Star Strek. I really like this era although most hardcore Gundam fans out there probably hate it since most Gundam shows are from different eras. If you're trying to get into Gundam/Mobile suits anime, this is a good start. Start with Gundam Seed though. Loved the story line, the twist and turn between the good guys and bad guys. There are some parts that irritates me a bit and those are the repetitive scenes, especially the fight scenes. Love the models, the characters, the songs, and I sometimes wonder that if any Gundam series out there that could happen in real life, I think that this is probably the closest.

Gundam SEED Destiny, the direct sequel to Gundam SEED, got off to a great start. We were thrown into battle that raged on and off for 4 to 5 episodes non-stop, and our hopes were high. There were new characters that had stories to be told, and a new plot to be delivered. But, this all stopped before the series even hit the 20th episode. Instead of the new characters being in the spotlight, Lacus and the crew came in and took it back. Athrun was left in the cold, and it became the Jesus Yamato show. Instead of seeing intense battles, we get to see Freedom strike the same pose over and over again as hundreds of grunt units explode.

Gundam SEED retained elements from the older, more war oriented Gundam series, which made it easily watchable and quite entertaining if you could get by the re-use of the same frames. But SEED Destiny became a "super robot" show in which the main characters suits could easily take out an entire fleet without getting a scratch. The new suits, while flashy, are just blatant copies of UC suits. Pumping up a Zaku and giving it a huge backpack doesn't mean you've created a new suit.

Destiny had the potential to be as good as SEED, but it ended up destroying itself by becoming a super robot show filled with Gundams.

I give it 3 out of 10 stars, because it did have a good start.

When I saw the show, it was THE most amazing Gundam series I have seen in years, even more so than Gundam SEED. The new machines in SEED Destiny is more well designed than the others; even some that weren't seen in SEED (I'm talking about SEED-MSV) made it into SEED Destiny. Of course, even though Freedom is destroyed, a new Freedom stands up to take its place; I'm talking about the ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom. There's even a new Justice Gundam on the block; ZGMF-X19A Infinite Justice. But, one thing has now caught my eye; a new mobile suit called the Akatsuki; it looks like Zeta Gundam's Hyaku Shiki in both appearance and color. Anyways, besides the machines are the characters; Shinn Asuka, orphan boy, ZAFTs top class, hates Kira, pilots powerful machines, etc. Then again, some old characters come back; Kira, Athrun, Cagalli, Lacus, Andrew Waltfeld, Murrue, etc. This show completely is a revolution in the Gundam series. Let there be GUNDAMS!!!!!

This series revives many the characteristically flashy visual and musical elements that gave the first SEED its barrages of pink laser fire and pervasive J-Pop background. Of course these worked much better with a good plot and characters to back them up. Despite its promising start, this series spirals out of control with the reappearance of Kira Yamato from the first SEED. Little by little, the intended protagonist Shinn falls to the way side until the hopelessly perfect Yamato takes his place. The notion of 'real robots' once so central to earlier incarnations of Gundam effectively fades away with the introduction of inexplicably godlike mecha for most of the major characters, reaching the apotheosis of absurdity with the one Kira receives.

Well, I did make a critical comment on Seed Destiny on IMDb prior to this (and yeah, I still don't like the first Seed) but after watching it on later episodes, something tells me that Destiny really seems to capture the core essence of this mighty mecha-based franchise, and it all shows in some of the most intense battle sequences ever made on TV. So it's pretty fair for me to pull back those crude words I uttered for the sake of all Gundam fans.

Though there are so many changes since the first show (truthfully, you'll be stuck in the woods if you don't follow its trail), it's still pretty much about the conflict between ZAFT (for dummies, space guys) and the forces of Earth, just like its predecessors. OK, I really miss lots of episodes in Seed (cause I don't really like it at all), so I have no idea the whole premise here but there's one thing I know about its characters: not one single person wants to prove to be heroic nor evil in this show because they are just doing what is right in their own eyes. And makers of the Gundam shows get smarter these days.

Despite its melodramatic nature, frequent uses of flashbacks (doggone these stuff) and the fact that the 'save our country from the enemy' conversations can become really annoying, the major highlight (and the main reason I watch Destiny) is the grand mecha battles: every single Gundam, including the famous one-eyed bots, make their appearances on (this time) both sides of the battlefield. Unless you know the show well, viewers will be virtually confused with their affiliations. Aside from improved 3D effects (and they blend really nicely) and character animation, one of the greatest thing that I realize recently is that most anime have 3D robots these days: the Gundam series, like Mr. Miyazaki himself, instead defy them by using the old-school methods (hand-drawn, that's for sure) and the result is impressive. In fact, I think these hand-drawn mechas look more versatile and exciting (nostalgia is the perfect word) compared to the rest of the 3D robots, which is a wonder why most recent mecha shows suck.

Like all anime stuff, there are some J-Pop songs specially produced for Destiny: mostly are varied in quality, ranged from awesome and memorable to the state that makes you think 'WTF?'. Just check them up, listen and you'll see what I mean.

And here is my analyst of the later episodes of Gundam Seed Destiny and yes, I admit it's really good. If you don't like its convoluted storyline, you'll be still enticed by Destiny's mecha battles, and they're all worthy of its parent name.