neko's thinkbox

I’m gonna go listen to Linkin Park.

After so many anime-unrelated posts, finally some Gundam Seed Destiny. I watched quite a few episodes these past two days, but… I already forgot most of the details. Why, I wonder. Probably because too many issues occurred in the meantime, especially with that darned poll plugin (finding the tweak to change the size of the text took me quite some time, tweaking, reuploading, undoing, tweaking, reuploading, etc).

Still, after finishing this post, I noticed that was able to get enough text to make most people go tl;dr (too long; didn’t read) XD… as always. But let’s start right away with Shinn’s emo corner!

Back in the days, where I thought that mecha anime were the root of evil in this world, I could read people’s gossip about a guy called Shinn. It mostly went along the lines of “Shinn = emo”. That’s something I always remembered. And yes, from the beginning of the series on, I figured he was, at least a little bit. His constant flashbacks about the incident at Onogoro where his parents and his little sister Mayu died make it obvious. Especially Mayu, actually. No, it’s only about Mayu! I don’t know, usually you’d consider your dead parents as well. Only focusing on your sister… well, that sure might imply a few things about their relation XD But why not? I mean, there are many such cases in the world…. *cough* okay I’ll stop with this nasty talk.

Oh noes… I lost my Linkin Park CD! D:

Besides, there might be other factors contributing to Shinn’s emo tendencies: he often gets teased by Lunamaria (or any other female crew on deck, I’m sure of that), he has to follow Athrun’s orders and even gets slapped twice by him, etc. I found that slapping scene quite funny, I watched it over and over again, only to see it again at the beginning of the next episode.

Pita!

However, Shinn can be lucky sometimes as well. Finishing off that Lohengrin cannon and getting a reward promise from Chairman Dullindal is a huge moral boost. But with skill acknowledgment alone, you can’t really make an emo guy like him happy. No, you need something of a huger caliber. What’s better than an innocent and amnesiac girl that helplessly falls into water to wake up Shinn’s lost feeling of love? You have the answer. Enter Stellar.

Your resistance only makes my … harder, yet another meme.

Shinn jumps into the water, saves Stellar, then triggers her panic with the word “death”, and she goes nuts, goes back into the water, and Shinn tries to hold her back. That sure was quite a messy scene, and although Shinn gets an elbow in the face (he gets hit once again), I wouldn’t be surprised if Shinn actually tried groping her a few times in the commotion. *blush* I didn’t see anything, too bad. She probably wouldn’t have reacted to that anyway. Would have been quite funny though.

Ohhhh~~ That was so great, Shinn!

Soon enough, Shinn will get pwned on the battlefield though. Like everyone around him, actually. Geez, Kira sure is kick-ass. When I saw the Minerva’s main cannon, the Tannhäuser, blow up, I thought it was defunct or so – I really didn’t pay attention to the fact that that green beam actually was Kira’s shot destroying the cannon. And yeah, I rejoiced. Big time. Hell, the following scene was so awesome I nearly jumped up my chair xD Yes, I know, there’s no way that Kira can take them all out in the blink of an eye, but I didn’t care. Bwaaaaaah, the EAF, Orb, Auel, Stellar, Heine, they all got owned so badly. Especially Heine, whose short but likable appearance already got ended by Stellar’s desperate attack. And yet another of Athrun’s friends gets killed, well, it’s your fault for returning to the Army, baka yarou.

Sorry Luna, I am going to have his babies now.

Then again, he was able to meet the new Lacus Clyne aka Meer Campbell. I very honestly feel sympathy for Athrun. Yes, I hate her. I wish she’d just fall off a cliff and die kthxperiod. Pff, it’s so ridiculous, she behaves like a spoiled idol. Not only does her song suck badly compared to Lacus’ songs, but her looks are much inferior as well (mostly because I hate fanservice, but that’s another story…). Those perverted civilians and soldiers all go crazy because she’s showing more features, ie. more skin, and bouncing boobs. And having a concert right in front of hundreds of soldiers is just wrong lol, Lacus would never do that, nooo no no forget it. As Haro (the REAL Haro) says, “I won’t accept that!”. Good thing the real Lacus pwns her later on by impersonating… herself and stealing Meer’s flight to PLANT. Bwahaha serves you right!!

This gotta be Meer’s dumbest facial expression ever.

Back to his ex-fiancé, Athrun, who sets off to meet Kira and Cagalli. They discuss, but can’t come to an agreement, Athrun still believing in the good intentions of chairman Dullindal. In the meantime, ZAFT discovers a hidden lab where the so-called “Extended” were produced, in short, kids that were raised with meds and what-not only to make them more efficient and thus more destructive on the battlefield – real human killing machines. Stellar, Auel and Sting are some of them. Whether Rey is one or not, well I don’t really know that yet. I know from his flashback that he was there with Dullindal and that Neo guy. Pfff… what the, who is Rey’s father now? Hair color suggests that he’s Neo’s son, but last time he met Dullindal he hugged him like he was his father. Or, maybe his parents are… a couple of gays?

They can’t help adding SPOILERS in their openings. Geez.

So, there is a new opening to GSD, featuring the song “Bokutachi no Yukue” by Takahashi Hitomi. Unlike the fast-paced previous songs from T.M. Revolution and HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR, this song lacks a bit of rhythm. But as long as I can still sing along, it’s good. I hate songs where there are too high tones (or too many height variations, like 2-3 octaves, etc), ’cause I can’t reach them with my deep voice u_u;; Anyway, the animation doesn’t include many spoilers as the previous openings had. Well, for one exception though. Neo’s goddarn face is shown right in the beginning. Thanks, now I know he has scars on his face and looks like a gigolo. Huh, wasn’t that supposed to be a surprise? Maybe it was, but I guess someone didn’t fully think that cunning plan through. Pffft…

Nevertheless, I still am unable to predict what is going to happen in the next few episodes. It’s clear to me that the Kira and Archangel will keep backing up the Minerva, but for how long? They might as well be shot at, since they’re not getting everyone’s sympathy with their heroic acts. Or, maybe the Minerva will join the Archangel and Orb to become neutral. Or the other way round, Kira and co. joining ZAFT. Either way, they need to hurry. It’s only 23 episodes left, and it feels like nothing much has happened yet. More like… Well, actually I can now think of a few things that might have made so many people disappointed with this series. In Gundam SEED, 50 episodes were barely enough to clear up the complicated story, and we already had many many characters: Kira, Athrun, Lacus, Cagalli, the Archangel Staff, etc etc. In SEED Destiny, we got about 90% of the old protagonists plus the new ones, ie. Shinn, Lunamaria, Rey, Meyrin, Stellar, Auel, Sting, Dullindal, and many many more. With all this cast, it’s pretty impossible having a clear character development while maintaining the priority on the characters of the old series. Good thing Heine died, one less to worry about. Need moar kills, so the story can move on faster.

Awww I feel like having a bath right now… :3

Moreover, the action is missing out as well here. Up until now, nothing has been more exciting than Freedom’s rare appearances, and that already means something. With all the new machines, neither Athrun nor Shinn are convincing enough in the battles. It’s a bit…. how should I put it… boring. If it continues like that, they should simply stay in their rooms and sleep, and let Kira clean up the mess out there. At least he can work efficiently, with his usual coolness.

I’m pretty curious to see how things will turn out. At least that GFAS-X1 prototype draft looks promising. It has quite a few interesting features… Aufprall_Dreizehn, Nefertem 503, Super_Skylla, Sturm_Faust, Mark 62…. erm… yeah, so they call it Destroy… mmhhhh I feel like watching the next episodes soon. But now, sleep. Writing takes so much time…….