Product Description
Year 70 of the Cosmic Era. The Coordinators, a group of genetically enhanced humans, have moved into colonies orbiting the Earth. But that hasn t quieted the tensions between them and regular humans; the conflict soon escalates into a full-scale war. On the neutral colony of Heliopolis, Kira Yamato, and his friends are going to school and just being kids. But when the ZAFT commando forces attack, Kira s life changes forever. Left with no choice, he and Federation officer Murrue Ramius are thrown into battle in a prototype mobile weapon, which Kira christens GUNDAM . Now, Kira must defend himself, and his friends, from his own people. For,
unknown to anyone else, Kira is a Coordinator. And the enemy he faces … More >>
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Anime Legends Collection 1
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Anime Legends Collection 1
5 Comments
Tags: Anime, Collection, Gundam, Legends, Mobile, SEED, SuitPosted 22 Jun 2010 in General
it has been over a month since i’ve ordered this, and i still have not received it Rating: 1 / 5
First off, Disk 2 was damaged and unreadable, but I choose not to allow that to affect the review. I emailed the manufacturer who had a replacement to me within a couple days so thats worth overlooking the issue imo.
Secondly, maybe I am dense, but this is not a “complete” product despite the words “Complete Collection” on the cover. It is the first in an installment of 2 DVD collections. As I was watching the final epidode in this series, they had a trailer for the next episode, which irked me but at least I didn’t feel like they cut it in half on “purpose”. There is quite a bit of material in here so they decided to make some extra money and release it in 2 sets. In fact they should have made it one long series and charged 50% more but I’m going to be somewhat generous and overlook that too in the review rating.
What I can’t overlook though is this: The Gundam series has exactly one story which they tell again and again, changing a couple of names and nothing else.
I have seen 3 Gundam series now and here is the story:
A teenage boy, with no military training finds himself in the middle of a battle in his home “town” (space station, whatever).
He is a peaceful young man, who doesn’t “believe” in war.
He comes across a prototype war machine designed to turn the tide of the war.
The military commanders decide that, rather than have the machine piloted by an experience war veteran, it would be best if the 17 year old boy with no military training whatsoever pilot the trillion dollar war machine. He also exceeds everyones expectations and instantly becomes the best warrior anyone has ever seen.
The experimental and expensive war machine is taken on board an experimental warship and they spend the rest of the show being chased by the enemy in a long running battle where they are free to discuss and see the horrors of war.
This makes 3 series now, with that exact same plot line and its getting a bit tiring.
The good news is, of the 3 I’ve seen, this is the most “grownup” of them. The characters are slightly better fleshed out, and more adult conversations are had. One girl uses sex as a “weapon” in one plot line and teenage petulance is not as overlooked as in other Gundam series. This isn’t to say this is aimed at an adult audience however. The constant use of a “teenage boy in grandiose situations” has been beat to death. Doesn’t the entire nation of Japanese Anime writers have anything else? The Japanese Anime community deserves better. It is a sloppy and lazy way to engage who is clearly their primary target: teenage boys. Teenage boys (and girls for that matter) deserve more credit than that. A good story will engage everyone.
There are a couple panty shots but none of the more hard stuff typical from Japan. However, at the beginning of the show during the music is a siloutte of a nude woman arching her back with her breasts heaving. Maybe not for the younger crowd, which is a shame because other than that and 2 panty shots, even younger teens could have enjoyed this show (the woman who uses sex as a weapon is not rewarded for it and it can even be seen as a warning about the dangers of teenage sexual activity…). On the other hand, any teenage boy with even indirect access to the Internet has seen a whole lot worse than this…
The combat is better than average and includes some large fleet engagements as well, but this particular Gundam takes the “large robot” fantasy a little to far for me. 3 prototype Gundams slaughter an entire fleet of capital ships as well as dozens of their support fighters WITHOUT A SCRATCH. Only the enemy Gundam is capable of stopping them. This too is a bit much to swallow and should have been toned down. Large and powerful, sure. Completely unstoppable, no.
Making the Gundams totally overwhelming just pulled me away from the action and reminded me of the silly dribble I watched from Japan as a boy where every robot was Godzilla and every piece of military machinary was just a prop for the guy in the suit to stomp on.
In the end, if I were going to recommend someones first Gundam series, this would be it. But then there would be nowhere else to go after this… Rating: 3 / 5
Seems that Gundam Seed Destiny 12 and this box set have the same recall or defect, the last disk in the set of 5 will not play, i hope there is an exchange going to happen soon, but untill theres an updated version i would not waste your money and time.
Mobile Suit Gundam 12: Seed Destiny Rating: 1 / 5
I know many others have complained about playback issues on this particular set. I have watched all five discs and have had no issues. I also purchased the set as an amazon pre-order and received it right after the release date (thanks to Prime membership).
For anyone not familiar with the GUNDAM series, this makes a great intro. Each series (with the exception of Destiny) begins with a new cast and a new backstory. In this particular series, a young boy is forced to pilot a mobile suit against his wishes….sounds a bit like every other anime, but don’t zone out yet!
What sets GUNDAM Seed Destiny apart from other boy robot anime is the flawless characterization as well as the BEST Japanese voice acting I have ever encountered. DO NOT WATCH IN ENGLISH! The English dub is very emotionless and, well, boring.
That said, the characters are beautifully drawn and their personalities are very realistic. Kira is not anything like the disgustingly inept Shinji from Eva, though he has his emotional breakdowns, he is very unselfish and vows to protect his friends, even against his people.
The story is very engaging as well. Genetically enhanced humans are called ‘Coordinators’ and live (for the most part) apart from the non-engineered humans called ‘Naturals’. The world is at war with Zaft representing the coordinators and the Atlantic Force representing the naturals. Though Kira is a coordinator (trust me not a spoiler) he is thrust into battle against Zaft and his fellow coordinators in order to protect his schoolmates.
This is an action packed anime with beautiful animation. The music is also top notch. This shows what can be done from a top studio (Sunrise) when they have a limitless budget to work with.
And of course it is the best selling anime series in Japan (screw you Pokemon!)
Pros: Animation, characterization, music, story and lots of robot fighting action.
Cons: A lot of robot fighting action. Rating: 5 / 5
As a fan of few anime shows, this one takes the cake. The story is rock solid and some episodes left me hanging on the edge of my seat. Although if you want the full Gundam Seed experience you will need to finish it out to the end of Gundam Seed Destiny. I would recommend this to anyone. Rating: 5 / 5