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Plot Synopsis

Cosmic Era 71. A war is under way between genetically enhanced Coordinators and unmodified Naturals. The Natural-dominated Earth Alliance, struggling to catch up with the Coordinators' superior technology, has secretly developed its own Gundam mobile suits at a neutral space colony. Through a twist of fate, a young Coordinator named Kira Yamato becomes the pilot of the Alliance's prototype Strike Gundam, and finds himself forced to fight his own people in order to protect his friends.

Story & Characters

Gundam Seed is the story of a teenager named Kira who, as he progresses through a delicate wartime, is forced to make difficult choices that may very well affect the wellfare of his friends and their safety. Being a Coordinator, his decision to pilot the Earth Force's secret weapon creates a conflict in why he actually battles people similar to him. The idea of DNA modification is a very controversial, yet interesting topic. The fact that this anime's scenario takes place in the future makes you think about where human development is going, and if, when scientific discoveries like this are made, conflicts as serious as this may arise.
The overall idea of this anime shows a relation to the racism that, although not as severe as in previous decades, is present in our current time. But, the relation to how the different "races" are able to function, i.e., their ability to work at a higher degree of complexity, creates a more significant problem that affects the entire planet. Because this issue may very well affect the progress of humanity and how we will advance in the future, it poses a very disturbing picture of what may come to be in the future.
My personal feelings towards controversial animes such as this are quite positive, as they, along with being entertaining forms of media, increase one's knowledge of what the future may hold.

Rating

8 (good)

Art

I think that the artwork featured in the anime was one of the high points for this series. Particularly, I noticed a smooth consistency in the artwork and the artists' ability to convey strong emotions--whether it been serious, confused, embarrased, or thoughtful.
I found the characters to be designed quite well--each with their own distinct personality, gestures, and overall emotions. The way that the faces, eyes and hair in particular, are drawn, make this anime very appealing to both male and female audiences.
As well as having well rounded human characters, the effort spent on the artwork for the gundams was quite extraordinary as well, The proportions, as well as the slight resemblance to the human frame, make the gundams appear almost lifelike in their gestures and movements.
The backgrounds, for me, was one of the more beautifully detailed aspects of this anime. Having them look like a beautiful painting adds to the overall effect, creating a very detailed and beautiful aptmosphere.

Rating

9 (very good)

Sound

I found the theme songs and ending themes for Gundam Seed to be quite appealing, both in the sound quality and in the emotions conveyed in the music. I give the background music the same positive judgement, as the music chosen for the particular scenes, to create a very moving output.
Unfortunately, this part of the review I apply only to the original Japanese version, for I found the recreated music (sung by Lacus, etc.) to be sadly disappointing.
The voice actors playing each of the GS characters in both the Japanese and english versions were pretty good in their play of the characters, with the original Japanese receiving more of my positive output. I found that the characters, like Cagalli, Lacus, and Athrun were played much better in the Japanese version, mostly because some of the speech sounded more scripted than natural.

Rating

8 (good)

Presentation

Originality- I found that the idea of having gundams or robot machines piloted by humans involved in the storyline a highly used topic in many animes. But, the concept of having mankind go to war over the creation of a race of humans with the ability to process higher levels of thinking and comprehension, as well as efficiency, struck me as a very well-rounded, original and realistic topic.
Humor-Though this struck me as something that was meant to be more of an angsty, sad and desperate anime, I found it to be humorous at times. For example, the introduction of the mob of Haros was very humorous for me; especially when Lacus drew a moustache on one of them, and told the rest of them that the "one with the moustache is it!". I think that the point of the humor in this anime was not for it to be slap-stick comedy, but for the watcher to chuckle once in a while at the antics of the characters once in a while.
Enjoyability to watch: I found Gundam Seed to be a very appealing anime to watch, not only because of the storyline, but because of the appealing, well-rounded characters, beautiful artwork and very good initial sound quality. The storyline is very realistic, and poses what may be in the future for mankind, the characters were believable and I was able to relate to them, the artwork was really nice, and the music was very catchy and appealing.

Rating

8 (good)

Final Verdict

8.17 (good)

Reviewed by kailone, 2y 51wk ago