MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM SEED (VOLUME 1).
July 2nd 2008 02:58
Category: Videos, Television
Created by: Hajime Yatate & Yoshiyuki Tomino.
Director: Mitsuo Fukuda.
Screenplay by: Chiaki Morosawa, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Akemi Omode, Hiroshi Onogi, Kyoko Kogure, Akinori Endo, Shigeru Morita & Yuichi Nomura
Producers: Seiji Takeda & Fumikuni Furusawa.
Starring: Matt Hill (Kira Yamato), Mark Oliver (Rau Le Creuset), Trevor Devall (Mu La Flaga), Samuel Vincent (Athrun Zala), Lisa Ann Beley (Murrue Ramius), Alison Matthews (Narrator),
Produced by: Sunrise & MBS.
English version produced by: Bandai Entertainment & The Ocean Group.
Released by: Madman Entertainment.
Running Time: 125 minutes. Rating: M 15
My first encounter with the whole Gundam phenomena was when I reviewed the first volume of the manga series Mobile Suit Gundam Seed (MSGS): Astray R, this particular anime is the actual series that spawned the universe which serves as the backdrop for MSGS: Astray R. Itself a spin-off of the original Mobile Suit Gundam, MS Gundam Seed takes place in the year 70 of the Cosmic Era, approximately a year before the events that occur in the Astray R manga. The Earth Alliance has in the wake of the Bloody Valentine tragedy entered into a conflict with the ZAFT organisation; initially though the ZAFT was better placed technologically it was generally felt that the superior numbers of the Earth Alliance would give them victory in the conflict. Such was not to be the case and the units of the ZAFT were able to establish beach heads on Earth itself and force the Alliance to fight on their own soil, causing significant devastation to the regions of the world where conflict was unleashed. So far the war has been going on for eleven months with no real end in sight.
Of course not everyone on Earth or amongst the various orbital colonies is committed to either side fighting in the conflict, the orbital city of Heliopolis, a colony established by the nation of Orb, is a neutral territory and committed to maintaining its neutrality. But the large bulk of the inhabitants of this peaceful space colony are blissfully unaware of the fact that the stance their regime has taken is all but a sham, something that both the Alliance and the ZAFT are well aware of for differing reasons. Though as events unfold the Alliance is completely unaware that ZAFT knows it is up to something on Heliopolis, they have assumed that they have been able to operate with a relative degree of secrecy, all that is about to come very much undone.
It seems that the Alliance has been using the facilities of Heliopolis to construct not only a series of prototype mobile suits for use in battle but a new class of spaceship on which these mobile suits are to be stationed, serving as the vessels strike force. Naturally ZAFT is not too happy about this and under the command of Rau Le Creuset they have mobilised a strike force to do something about the Alliance’s efforts and neutralise them before they can be deployed against them. Destruction is not the agenda here; although the commandos inserted into the colony do considerable damage the main aim is for the elite team members to seize the new mobile suits and commandeers them for ZAFT. Of course even though they have managed to sneak in with minimal fuss the ZAFT forces soon make their presence felt.
Into the ensuing carnage and chaos is thrust Kira Yamato, the primary protagonist of this series. Kira is a Coordinator, a genetically engineered human who like others of his kind has been enhanced for superior reflexes, mental capacity and a natural adaptability for low g and zero g environments. It seems that the differences between Coordinators and Naturals (as normal humans are called by Coordinators) are the basis for much of the tension between the Alliance and ZAFT. ZAFT is completely comprised of Coordinators whilst the bulk of the Alliance is of natural origin; Orb is one of the few places where the two differing strains of humanity are able to live in some degree of relative harmony. In a twist of fate Kira Yamato ends up becoming a pilot for the very side who has a distinct dislike of his own species, he becomes an ace in the Earth forces. Of course its not simply down to the fact that he has seen a secret Earth weapon, or even that he actually knows one of the ZAFT commandos involved in the operation to capture the mobile suits, a childhood friend; Athrun. No what it essentially comes down to is he has a natural ability at piloting a mobile suit, the Gundam type in particular, as if he was literally born to it that and the fact that in the efforts of trying to escape the initial ZAFT hijacking of the Gundam he modified the operating system to work more efficiently but inadvertently making it work for a Coordinator, his modifications won’t work for a Natural.
Of course there are a lot of little twists like this running throughout these opening stanzas of the MSG Seed saga, Lieutenant Ramius who was attempting to have the mobile suits deployed onto the Archangel, the new prototype warship, wasn’t expecting to end up in command of it. Kira’s friends didn’t expect that they would end up as serving as crew members of the Archangel let alone getting involved in the war between the Alliance and ZAFT And ZAFT soldier Athrun certainly didn’t expect to find himself in combat with his old friend Kira at the helm of the latest and strongest Gundam types that the Alliance had been secretly building.
Unfortunately an attempt to take the mobile suits turns into a major catastrophe and Heliopolis is destroyed as a result of the ZAFT sneak attack. It is a tragedy of truly monumental proportions, an entire colony wiped out over a covert weapons development program, one wonders if it possibly all could have been avoided? Probably not, as it seems that the Alliance has few places where they could attempt to develop new vessels and mobile suits without their enemy being forewarned of their creation. In fact it’s interesting to realise that amongst all the chaos you never actually find out just how ZAFT managed to learn what was going on in Heliopolis, a traitor within Alliance ranks, a sympathiser amongst the Heliopolitan population or just sloppy communications security?
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed is a fine space opera, and its interesting that unlike so many other space operas it does restrict its actions to what could be considered to be a very small region. All of it’s action unfolds in the space between the Earth and the Moon, it never moves beyond this area and at times its seems to convey the impression that it is almost a galactic scale saga it is in fact something a little bit more modest. Still when you actually consider the volume of space that is the Earth-Moon system that is a fair amount of space, certainly more than enough to weave an epic tale.
“Break through the darkness Gundam!”
Director: Mitsuo Fukuda.
Screenplay by: Chiaki Morosawa, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Akemi Omode, Hiroshi Onogi, Kyoko Kogure, Akinori Endo, Shigeru Morita & Yuichi Nomura
Producers: Seiji Takeda & Fumikuni Furusawa.
Starring: Matt Hill (Kira Yamato), Mark Oliver (Rau Le Creuset), Trevor Devall (Mu La Flaga), Samuel Vincent (Athrun Zala), Lisa Ann Beley (Murrue Ramius), Alison Matthews (Narrator),
Produced by: Sunrise & MBS.
English version produced by: Bandai Entertainment & The Ocean Group.
Released by: Madman Entertainment.
My first encounter with the whole Gundam phenomena was when I reviewed the first volume of the manga series Mobile Suit Gundam Seed (MSGS): Astray R, this particular anime is the actual series that spawned the universe which serves as the backdrop for MSGS: Astray R. Itself a spin-off of the original Mobile Suit Gundam, MS Gundam Seed takes place in the year 70 of the Cosmic Era, approximately a year before the events that occur in the Astray R manga. The Earth Alliance has in the wake of the Bloody Valentine tragedy entered into a conflict with the ZAFT organisation; initially though the ZAFT was better placed technologically it was generally felt that the superior numbers of the Earth Alliance would give them victory in the conflict. Such was not to be the case and the units of the ZAFT were able to establish beach heads on Earth itself and force the Alliance to fight on their own soil, causing significant devastation to the regions of the world where conflict was unleashed. So far the war has been going on for eleven months with no real end in sight.
Of course not everyone on Earth or amongst the various orbital colonies is committed to either side fighting in the conflict, the orbital city of Heliopolis, a colony established by the nation of Orb, is a neutral territory and committed to maintaining its neutrality. But the large bulk of the inhabitants of this peaceful space colony are blissfully unaware of the fact that the stance their regime has taken is all but a sham, something that both the Alliance and the ZAFT are well aware of for differing reasons. Though as events unfold the Alliance is completely unaware that ZAFT knows it is up to something on Heliopolis, they have assumed that they have been able to operate with a relative degree of secrecy, all that is about to come very much undone.
Into the ensuing carnage and chaos is thrust Kira Yamato, the primary protagonist of this series. Kira is a Coordinator, a genetically engineered human who like others of his kind has been enhanced for superior reflexes, mental capacity and a natural adaptability for low g and zero g environments. It seems that the differences between Coordinators and Naturals (as normal humans are called by Coordinators) are the basis for much of the tension between the Alliance and ZAFT. ZAFT is completely comprised of Coordinators whilst the bulk of the Alliance is of natural origin; Orb is one of the few places where the two differing strains of humanity are able to live in some degree of relative harmony. In a twist of fate Kira Yamato ends up becoming a pilot for the very side who has a distinct dislike of his own species, he becomes an ace in the Earth forces. Of course its not simply down to the fact that he has seen a secret Earth weapon, or even that he actually knows one of the ZAFT commandos involved in the operation to capture the mobile suits, a childhood friend; Athrun. No what it essentially comes down to is he has a natural ability at piloting a mobile suit, the Gundam type in particular, as if he was literally born to it that and the fact that in the efforts of trying to escape the initial ZAFT hijacking of the Gundam he modified the operating system to work more efficiently but inadvertently making it work for a Coordinator, his modifications won’t work for a Natural.
Of course there are a lot of little twists like this running throughout these opening stanzas of the MSG Seed saga, Lieutenant Ramius who was attempting to have the mobile suits deployed onto the Archangel, the new prototype warship, wasn’t expecting to end up in command of it. Kira’s friends didn’t expect that they would end up as serving as crew members of the Archangel let alone getting involved in the war between the Alliance and ZAFT And ZAFT soldier Athrun certainly didn’t expect to find himself in combat with his old friend Kira at the helm of the latest and strongest Gundam types that the Alliance had been secretly building.
Unfortunately an attempt to take the mobile suits turns into a major catastrophe and Heliopolis is destroyed as a result of the ZAFT sneak attack. It is a tragedy of truly monumental proportions, an entire colony wiped out over a covert weapons development program, one wonders if it possibly all could have been avoided? Probably not, as it seems that the Alliance has few places where they could attempt to develop new vessels and mobile suits without their enemy being forewarned of their creation. In fact it’s interesting to realise that amongst all the chaos you never actually find out just how ZAFT managed to learn what was going on in Heliopolis, a traitor within Alliance ranks, a sympathiser amongst the Heliopolitan population or just sloppy communications security?
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed is a fine space opera, and its interesting that unlike so many other space operas it does restrict its actions to what could be considered to be a very small region. All of it’s action unfolds in the space between the Earth and the Moon, it never moves beyond this area and at times its seems to convey the impression that it is almost a galactic scale saga it is in fact something a little bit more modest. Still when you actually consider the volume of space that is the Earth-Moon system that is a fair amount of space, certainly more than enough to weave an epic tale.
“Break through the darkness Gundam!”
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