Anime: Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED Destiny

Gundam Seed Destiny is, in my view, one of the most underrated series of all. Most of those who watch it are Gundam fans and certainly watched Gundam Seed before (if you haven't, go and watch before even trying Gundam Seed Destiny, and also read my review about it), and they still give many bad names to the show. The reason for this is understandable because of the superb quality of its predecessor, but watching Gundam Seed Destiny can be the ultimate experience to glorify its predecessor in many ways.

Art & Animation
While it keeps the animation style and art quality of its predecessor, Gundam Seed Destiny shows a much brighter and more polished work. The animation is more fluid and the use of repeated scenes is drastically reduced. The mecha designs are still pretty gorgeous and varied, adding even more models to the list. The show, however, has far more girls than before and an overall feeling of something more teen and flashy than the original Gundam Seed. The advancements are good enough to hide the issues, and overall we have a gorgeous production quality that is very well used by the action-paced plot and combat-demanding sequences.

Sound
Gundam Seed established a very high value on terms of sound direction and Gundam Seed Destiny maintains it and enhances a little. The openings and ending themes are still merged with the show and are a step above from its predecessor. Dramatic music permeates the series as a whole, with remarkable sountrack and nice themes to characters and mechas. The best moments of Gundam Seed Destiny are greatly based on some themes and how they're used, especially when Kira returns to scene with Freedom or when dramatic combats take place.

Story
Two years after the end of the events in Gundam Seed the world is living in a period of peace and reconcilliation. However, while still clinging to non-agressive ideals, the new leader of the colonies is supporting the construction of new mobile suits and weapons. During a diplomatic visit of Cagalli to the colonies an attack staged by a special taskforce of the Earth Federation manages to steal three new mobile suits and once again the world is on the path of war.

1. A True Sequel
   Story-wise, it's still a Gundam and based on political warfare within the awesome setting created by Gundam Seed. The idea is pretty much the same as before, with a eminent war bewteen coordinators and naturals starting and once again threatening peace. While the basic idea and main elements are nothing special, Gundam Seed Destiny shines when the story from the predecessor intertwines with the new one, bringing old characters to the spotlight and turning a bland show into a lesson of how to use established characters with quality.
   
   Impact-Based Show
   The story is a lot more dependent on twists and turns and uses surprising appearances of the original cast as a powerful tool to create an addictive value. The rest of the formula of how things happen is the same, with new mechas, crazy enemies, constant conflicts, a few political backstabs, etc. Gundam Seed Destiny, however, is a fairly lighter experience and is most based on action than on drama, stragety, and depth.
   

Character
Gundam Seed Destiny shows an interesting duality here. It presents new characters in the first episodes and tries to build upon them, ultimately failing because of the lack of depth and charisma of most. The main character is annoying and undeveloped, far too stupid and vengeful to be realistic. The initially reused characters from Gundam Seed, namely Athrun and Cagalli, are not enough to save the rest and are badly used most ofthe time, like sitting ducks amidts gunfire instead of taking any action as they should. The new support cast is very weak and is more about beautiful girls than quality, a thing that was completely left behind in Gundam Seed.

1. The Return of God-Like Kira
   However, after the first fifteen episodes or so, the cast from the original Gundam Seed returns and starts to rob the spotlight to slowly became the main focus of the show. When this happen you can clearly see the difference bewteen the quality of both casts and in a way glorify the original characters and their more belieavable roles and personalities. Kira, Murrue, Lacus, and Cagalli make a good return, but they are not further developed within the plot, only used as completed characters to move the plot forward and save the day when the new cast start to get annoying and far too shounen-style. At least the beautiful girls are moved aside and the focus of the show is changed to the big new conflict putting the Archangel and Eternal crew right in the middle.
   
   Fanservice Characters This Time
   Sadly, unlike the original Gundam Seed. Gundam Seed Destiny makes use of more fanservice elements than necessary. While the plot is still fairly mature, you'll be watching far more scenes with girls in skirts or tight clothings, more scenes of girls in underwear, etc. It's not overwhelming to truly harm the experience, but it's there nonetheless.
   

Value
It's a fitting continuation, with better production value and a huge addition to the great setting the predecessor established. Gundam Seed Destiny, however, is far from reaching the expectations of such a cherished series and can leave you wanting more depth that was present in Gundam, Gundam Zeta, Gundam Seed, and other series. It still uses the base setting in a good manner, making a great impact with new mechas, awesome fights and a more shounen-style show than before. The show is mostly action driven and succeeds in being good in what it proposes to do. Also, I don't remember any other show to use a established cast in such a superb way as here. Even without any big character development, the use of Kira and his crew is a huge factor to make this show extremely addictive.

Enjoyment
Gundam Seed Destiny is all about awe and dramatic combats. It's extremely entertaining to watch even without much depth and charisma. The fights are huge and well made, the dramatic entrances of the old characters are simply awesome and the degree of addicting gets higher and higher, with some of the most epic fights in anime series in overall. Truly worth watching, but you mustn't expect the same quality and depth of the predecessor.

Comments
I've took my time before watching Gundam Seed Destiny. People were very harsh telling me it was bad and everything else, and because of that I could only watch it after about two years of its release. The first episodes were boring and I was sadly going to agree with my friends, but when Kira returned with the old cast and things started to move, the series raised greatly. Some moments in the series are truly remarkable for those who've watched Gundam Seed with care, with superb fights that the original lacked and a sound direction of rare quality.

After I've finished watching it, I was extremely happy. The ending was somehow predictable, but the tension that builds before that and the outcome of the final battles were surprising and great. I can see why people hate the series, it brings some noisy characters with almost zero depth and confront heavy-built characters from the original cast as if they could, and the events of the series all go away from the expected happenings until near the end. But it's hard not the see the quality of the show, from production to the usage of the old cast and to how twists and turns are well used to move a fairly average plot with greatness.

Seed Destiny returns us to the Seed universe, continuing time wise from the conclusion of the epic battle at the end of Seed. It seems the world has not learned anything from the previous series of events and again the world needs Kira to step in again. But wait, we find that Kira isn't even in almost half the episodes!

Gundam Seed Destiny is another look at the SEED universe with additional characters and a frighteningly unoriginal storyline. This time the story starts from the Zaft perspective when suddenly three Gundams are stolen by unknown (Natural) pilots. The story then follows new Zaft red-ace Shin and a confused Athrun as Zaft chases the thiefs (sound familiar yet?).

Though the plot line is quite predictable at times and you pretty much know how it has to end, it is a decent watch for those that liked Seed. The new gundams look pretty nice as well.

Animation:
Expect what you saw in Gundam Seed, there are still noticeable CG graphics at times but the animation in general is still of fairly high quality. Some of the new gundams are pretty sweet but I'm not certain the gold/silver do anything further than allowing Bandai to sell more model kits.

Sound:
As with the original, the OP/EDs are of extremely high quality (except for the last OP which I disliked greatly). The OST in destiny mirrors the original in quality though is slightly different. Voice acting is strong in general, you really get a good feel for Shin's brash personality.

Story:
I think originality is lacking here but it's hard to explain without spoiling anything. The plot in this one revolves around the new Zaft ruler, Dullindal, who is fighting to end all wars (think of what the word destiny might mean).

Again the theme is "what are we fighting for", and no one really finds an answer. Expect a lot of de ja vu as you watch this.

Character:
The new lead character is Shin Asuka, a survivor of the battle to defend Orb in the first series. He is stubborn to a fault and his battle style is very aggressive, matching his suit's name, Impulse. He is constantly a very cold character and doesn't show any other real emotion other than outbursts of anger and grief till near the end of the series. Like many of the characters from the first series, he also possesses a SEED which allows him to accomplish feats that amaze his fellow coordinators.

Though Shin is supposed to be the lead, Athrun Zala returns, and the story actually focuses on him quite a bit as well. He ends up returning to Zaft believing in Dullindal's words.

All the characters go through similar developments as in the original though Kira has matured greatly. He is by far one of the top aces and is mentally much stronger than at the beginning of seed. Some of the newly introduced characters are quite lively and make the plot thicker but over all they introduced too many characters, loosing the balance between character entry and development that Seed maintained so well. Many characters (Cagalli, Lacus, etc.) are shoved aside for the most part to make room for the development of new characters. Relationships (of the male-female type) are more muted as well; another type of relationship (political) is much more clearly defined.

Value:
There are a fair amount of battles in this one with some new technology as well. I found the plot less engaging than the original but still fairly decent since there were quite a few ironies/surprises. A decent watch for those who still want more after Seed. As I prefer character and relationship development over politics, I didn't think this was as strong as Seed.

How did they manage to mess this one up??? [br][br]Gundam SEED was great, with a most incredible finale. Naturally, I was excited when I found out there was going to be a sequel.[br]If you are willing to overlook that the first epsiode is ridiculously similar to the first of SEED, the series has actually a great start. A lot of suspense is built up and the new setting is very interesting. The medium part is still very good with a great plot twist which makes one think Destiny might even be better than SEED, but what the hell happened at the end? Instead of preparing the finale (Which seed did as early as from episode 43 if I remember correctly), they had the nerve of inserting 2(!!!) filler episodes right before the actual end of the show. What have they been thinking?? Have they been thinking at all? This wraps up the conclusion to 2 or 3 episodes. After they were finished even the producers realized what they had done and released Destiny Final Plus, an extended finale in order to at least partially make up for their mistakes.[br]I was so disappointed of the end, because this basically scraps the whole series which actually was very good aside from the conclusion. [br][br]Animation:[br]Not much to say here; it's similar to SEED, so overall pretty good. However some episodes have lower animation quality than others and the CGI style may not be everybody's taste. I liked it though.[br][br]Sound:[br]Exceptional. The music was just plain perfect. This is one of Sahashi Toshihiko's masterpieces. It will be hard to find any anime soundtrack that has more incredible themes than the Destiny OST's. Also we have the seiyu of Char Aznable as Gilbert Durandal. His voice is so remarkable. The insert songs are also nice, but not as good as in SEED. Features great music from See-Saw again.[br][br]Story:[br]Well, well. The plot is not very original. 2 years after the events of SEED, ZAFT and the Federation are still at peace, but some interest groups within both factions seek a new conflict. The story puts in motion with the new ZAFT Gundam prototypes stolen and the new spaceship Minerva trying to pursue the Federation forces (who could have guessed). But even though the base plot itself not being very creative, the story that sets in motion afterwards is. There is also as stated above a nice plot twist halfway through the series. There is a lot of suspension throughout the series thanks to the good story but unfortunately, the end comes too short and rushed in order to give a satisfying end. [br][br]Character:[br]Aside from the same cast as in SEED (Athrun is a very intersting char in Destiny) there are many new characters. There were more females and way more fanservice than in SEED (Not a bad thing actually).[br]Lunamaria Hawk, for example is a female pilot from the Minerva interested in Athrun. I think they should have put more romance in Destiny. They set up a good basis but always just tackled the issue. I guess thats more a strong part from Macross rather than Gundam.[br]Gilbert Durandal, the new president of ZAFT was definitely my favorite char. I like his character design (and Seiyu) and he seems to be a very reasonable person. Then again, he sometimes looks suspicous but you can't really put your finger at it.[br][br]Value / Enjoyment:[br]If you enjoyed SEED, there is no reason why you wouldn't enjoy SEED Destiny. It has many flaws but it has just as many strong points. I watched Destiny as a whole twice and several episodes more often. With a perfect finale such as SEED had, this show would have been great! Without its just "good". [br][br]

This is my second gundam series after SEED. To start a 50-episodes-series is one thing, and to sit through it till the end is another thing. While the series managed to pull me somehow to see the final episode, it had a lot of things that almost made me break the DVDs. A couple of fags as protagonists, is an example for that.

Destiny had a great pacing of events, a somehow compelling story and very good "sound" to deliver. Those were very good elements indeed. Also, in the plus section, I can mention a story that had over 10 main characters, but none of them was neglected. Each of them had a role to perform at any specific moment, and I have to say that the roles were very well chosen to suit each character. All of those elements would normally make a series an extraordinary one. But few elements deprived Destiny of becoming one.

To begin with, the Characters. Lets start with Kira. Needless to say he had one of the worst voice acting I ever came across, but this of course was not my problem with him. It was what he was doing. He is considered as a hero of a previous war but he did not want to fight because he did not want to kill anyone. OK, I could live with that, but then in the middle of one of the episodes, he destroyed half of a fleet because he wanted to stop his sister from crying (he said it literally to Athrun, which made the latter in a semi shock state allowing Kira to destroy the remaining ships!!). If you are wondering, this was in the first encounter for the Minerva with ORB forces. Then the guy continued to defend his beliefs that he wont fight unless he had to, till they shocked me in another episode when he finished off Athrun (who was in a shocked-state again) in a fight that both could avoid. I could go on for a long time describing contradictions with that guy, but I prefer to go on with the next character.

Shin, a character that held so much potential, I could only describe him as a stupid monkey with a powerful mobile suit. I built so much hope for this character at the beginning of the series, but as soon as I discovered that he lacked a brain all of his actions came predictable.

The only characters that I could show some respect to were Athrun and Dulandil. Athrun joined one side and fought regardless of the doubts he had. And Dulandil was so intelligent that he got everybody doing what he wants.

As for the female leads in the series, and unlike the male ones, they were good. Their development was very well paced and their contribution to the events was remarkable.

The second element that dragged the quality of the series was the animation. I had really a hard time differentiating Kira from Athrun from Shinn.. It was their hair color that guided me afterwards, since the three of them had the same facial characteristics. The repetition of the fighting scenes were also something that decreased the quality of this anime overall. The repetition at the beginning of each episode was also bothering and consumed almost 5 minutes of each episode. Since I have not watched a lot of mecha animes I think Mecha designs were fine. Scenery views were good and somehow detailed. attention was paid to little environmental details to keep the basic level of animation in a satisfactory way. Around three cap episodes were present (one was dedicated to summarize the SEED series) and I think that was enough for a 50 episodes series.

Thestory was the strongest point of Destiny in my opinion. It was successful to cover the 50 episodes without giving you the feeling it was made to be so. As I said, all the characters had their roles, none of them was neglected beside the fact that Destiny had over 10 main characters. Twists were done in a good way at the right moments. Two things nonetheless stopped me from giving 10 to the story section. First, the idea that the main hero will always survive regardless that his mobile suit had been totally destroyed (two times with athrun and one time with Kira) and Second, the contradictions the characters had between what are they saying and what they're doing. Other than those two "thingies", I repeat myself in saying Destiny's greatest point was the story.

The second strongest point of Destiny was the sound. All of the openings and endings were very catchy and I liked them all. The BGM was very well chosen and played to suit the scene. In fact, I think BGM alone is enough to tell the story itself without the characters speech. Voice casting was good if we forget the voices of Kira and Shinn. Almost all the voice actors did their job in a good way and kept the same level of quality along the entire series.

Finally, for the enjoyment and value, Was Destiny worth my time? Well, yes. I pretty much enjoyed it and I have to say it had its moments. Will I watch it again? I strongly doubt it. Do I recommend it? yes, to mecha fans and no to others since there are other mecha shows that exceeded destiny in my opinion.

first i 'm not good at english so try your best to understand.

Second may be it is the only Sci-fi + mecha anime in 2005 so it gain the reward ?

i don't want to blame shin about what he done.Well if your best friend alway use your past to control you so that is normal.But he so stupid that he alway think that his victory is something he gain by himshef.

Third about the mech i don't want to spoil but if you compare intinife justice with strike freedom or the another "super mobile suit" in SEED/ SEED DESTINY it just like a dumb to them
that manke the duel between athrun and shin are a joke.

About the character, well just same old lacus and kira who think they are god can stop the war by just appear in the battle fied.

Hi. I'm actually going to base this review, comparing it the the prequel. So all I have to say first is that the first series of Gundam Seed is much more better than this one. I actually watched the first three episodes of this series before even watching the first series, so I decided to watch the first one instead. I was right about watching the first series first, because the other one bypasses this series by far. Especially since the main character (protagonist) changes to an obnoxious, ignorant, and selfish person, that may be a reason why I didn't like this series as much.

Animation:

The animation of this series was okay in relation to its predecessor, Gundam Seed. The first series was so much better in action and fighting that this one looks really bad. Since I watched the first one, I thought this one would be just like it, but I was mistakened. However, as I saw the old characters of the first one come back and play their roles, it gave me the reassurance that this series would be worth watch. There could have been a lot of improvement in this series of the animation, and the prequel bypasses it by far.

Sound:

The music in which this series plays is again, not as good as the first series, but it does show that the creators are trying to portray the feeling and emotion of the beginning and end. There isn't much to say about the sound, but there really could have been improvement and a better music and sound quality to it.

Story:

This series takes place two years after the incident between the Naturals and Coordinators with the main characters Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala. However, in this series, a new person is introduced, his name is Shinn Asuka.

The story is almost like the first series, except that some Naturals (Extended) steal mobile suits from ZAFT. Then ZAFT goes after them and Shinn must fight them to try to destroy them or try to get the mobile suits back. But it is not as easy as it seems, and the Minerva (the battleship piloted by Captain Gladys) is used to fight the enemy Naturals.

The Logos, the root to the Blue Cosmos, an group of people radically against the Coordinators are behind the war that's about to begin again between the two different kinds of people. As the Naturals try to used nuclear weapons again to destroy PLANT, the Coordinators show no mercy and use a weapon made up of static electricity and a kind of wave that destroys everything, and shows the Logos that they aren't that easily defeated. Then the events take place and Athrun Zala must join ZAFT again and fight to see what "he" can do with his own power.


Character:

Shinn Asuka, a 16-year-old ZAFT mobile suit pilot, wearing the red uniform, showing a great distinction between many of the other people in ZAFT. The series starts when his parents, sister, and he are trying to run away and escape to the shuttles to get away from the bombings. When his little sister, Mayu, drops her cell phone down a hill, he slides down to retrieve it. But when he does, he dodges death when a huge bomb from a mobile suit bombs the place where his parents and sister were. They are dead and he screams with tears and resentment against Orb. From this event, he blames the Naturals and Orb of what had happened to his family. He despises Naturals and Orb and only thinks what he does is the right thing to do. His attitude and personality are unlike a soldier, going against his superiors and acting like he knows everything and understands everything. He is trapped within the past and as he fights Kira Yamato, and Athrun Zala later in the series, he still does not realize that both ZAFT and the Logos are the wrong ones. As he is confused and does not know what to do, he is manipulated by Rey, another ZAFT soldier and the Chairman, Gilbert. He goes berserk a lot and destorys many lives, people, ships, mobile suits, and has no regret that he's doing this. And finally, at the end, when everything is over, he realizes that what he had been fighting for, had been the wrong choices after all. His character and personality are the opposite to the former main character Kira Yamato, and Shinn Asuka is kind of what made me dislike this series a lot than I should have. But he is the main focus, although there are many other characters as well.

Athrun Zala is in this series, rejoining ZAFT and fighting with his power, but as the events pass and realizes what the Chairman of the High Council of ZAFT is doing, he decides to once again fight with the Archangel.

Lacus Clyne, Kira Yamato, Captain Murrue, and Mirialla are all in this series as well, from the first series, and with their roles in this series, made me want to watch it more.

Value:

The value of this series is not as good as the first series, so if you haven't seen the first series, watch that one first. But this series is good to keep.

Enjoyment:

I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first one, but when I saw that the characters of the first series were also present in this series, like Kira, Lacus, Murrue, and Cagalli, I wanted to continue to watch it. I really despised the character Shinn Asuka, however, as I have really made a biased opinion on him. I know that he is just a confused, over-dramatic and emotional individual, he really made me want to go and punch him. But I know that's impossible to do. What really made me angry about him was that he onlt thought that "he" only understand what was happening. How he back-talked to Athrun, and how he spoke to Cagalli, who wre involved with the previous war, really made me go to the edge of my seat. If he was out of the picture and Kira was replaced by him and the entire story was changed with Kira still the main protagonist and fighter, then I think I would have enjoyed it more. But in the end, I watched the entire series anyway. I respect the way the creators made Shinn and how he was an individual affected by the war, but I think they could have made him a bit more sentimental to the other characters. There were even times when I hoped he'd get get seriously hurt, but those times never happened.

Although I realize that I am not a part of the story or the characters, it really makes a person really involved in the though process as well as the emotions that the characters engage in.

Anyway, if you haven't seen this series yet, you MUST watch it. Just be aware that the new character, Shinn, may make you want to get at him as he did to me, but it depends on your own perspective on war and your understanding of the first series. All in all, I pretty much enjoyed this series. I hope that you will too!

Sorry this review may be a bit long, but I hope I've enticed you to watch this series.

Another thing that I've realized in this series and the first series is that there is absolutely NO COMEDY. Most anime series have funny times, but I don't remember even one time when I laughed. If you are in for a very serious, dramatic, and action-packsed series, then I suggest this series, but mainly the first series, Gundam Seed.

Anyway, that's my review!

See ya! Watch this one, you probably will like it!