neko's thinkbox

the thinkbox

Why, or why not. Neko’s final thoughts on Gundam SEED Destiny.

(late note: after reading all of this, I feel like I am running in circles. I hope you can somewhat follow my point a bit >_<)

Well yeah, that was it. I don’t really know where to begin… I can somehow understand people’s frustration about the fact that the producers tried to squeeze a new story out in less than six or seven episodes. The lack of time is partially to blame on the many recaps and flashbacks in the previous episodes. Granted, the Japanese usually watch a certain series once a week on TV, and since most of them don’t record the episodes, they sometimes would like to be reminded of certain details once in a while. New watchers often welcome such recaps as well, but who am I telling that, you guys know the purpose of recap eps as well. However, right in the end of the series, just as the story is about to climax, they pull out a recap at ep 42, then a useless episode 45 where Kira and co. go shopping on the moon with Meer/Lacus drama, and as if they weren’t already short of time, ep 46 is a flashback of Meer’s life, which is TOTALLY unrelated to the current story.
Seriously, that’s rubbish. With all of this, it’s no wonder that they’re in a rush to finish the oversaturated story in the last few episodes. The time that has been wasted on unnecessary recaps could at least have been used so they wouldn’t have needed to rush at the end. As a consequence, many substantial details have been neglected if not omitted, not even the main plot could be treated in-depth, which is fatal for an originally good story.

There are so many examples to underline this argument, so I’ll just pick the most blunt and baffling one. So, all of a sudden, Neo remembers, through a similar situation, that he’s Mwu after all, and that his brain had be manipulated. Sensei, I have a question! How did he survive? Teleport? Hax? Remember, he has been destroyed right in front of everyone’s eyes back then at Jachin Due. If he survived, why could nobody find him back? They found Kira, why not Mwu? Next question, how did the Earth forces retrieve him? Did they collect his bones or the atoms that once made his body then revived him with TEH MAGIC? I smell some “sv_cheats 1″. Yet, after this miraculous recovery, they still left him with a scar on his face? Oookay… In the end, if he had been a clone, as I had said earlier, it’d have been okay.. However, the way this turned out really makes no sense. A better explanation to this ‘phenomenon’ would have been welcome – maybe there IS a logical explanation, after all…

Fireworks, etc.

I won’t even mention the lack of explanations of the many events around the Requiem though: its sudden existence, then suddenly four plants get destroyed, and what happens? Nothing! The Bloody Valentine triggered a massive outrage amongst PLANT, and it had been but one plant. Now, they’re destroyed, it’s causing sadness and grief, but everyone’s attitude, besides from being shocked, doesn’t change one bit. I expected that instant to be more solemn, more dramatic. Oh well. The people might all have been in such a rush to finish the story that they couldn’t even express their sadness and anger. Poor people!
What else… Yeah, the Messiah, to suddenly be the last stronghold of Dullindal, and to have hidden the Neo-Genesis, once again a secret weapon that pops out of nowhere… I thought it would be better protected than that. Honestly speaking, it was just too easy for our guys to gain access to it. But the structure of the Messiah is also something. Yes, as everything crumbled around the chairman’s chair, he was the only one to survive, although his chair was placed in the middle of the room. Okay, the whole room is filled with dust and what-not. Would you think that his dress would have even the slightest spot of dirt on it? In your dreams! Kira, of course, immediately finds the way to that fated place, where they all would eventually gather for the grand finale. With a witty explanation, Rey decides ALL OF A SUDDEN to shoot at Dullindal. Because Kira’s future sounds better. He who was Raww’s clone, who obviously shared the same views as him, and who fully supported Dullindal, instantly experiences a such a radical change of mind… Motive, reason? Logical explanation?? Time??? 404 Error: Not Found.

This and many other aspects I won’t mention now are symptomatic for rushed endings like in GSD. In order to get the story done within a predefined episode frame, they neglected many details that were vital to the integrity of the story. The epicness and the solemnity of the prequel were in no way matched in this series. Many people say, the whole thing was only for $$$. Indeed, if you look at it from that point of view, with all the new mechas that have been introduced in this series, they sure will make a lot of money with all the merchandise. However, wouldn’t it have even better to extend the episode count a bit, like, 60+ so that they could have taken their time explaining things better at the end of the series? If they had kept the good story up, they would most probably also have made more profit on selling DVDs and what-not, no? Also, they wouldn’t have angered the fanbase like this. Killing a few birds with one stone seems impossible this time. But then again, with the extra episodes and the OVA’s, plus the GSD movie that’s currently in production, they might have triggered some interest. But the old hardcore Gundam fans have been boiling anyway since the beginning, claiming that the story of the SEED series is nearly indentical to the previous Gundam series, if ever, but only much worse, etc. Well, that might be true, but I can’t say anything about that, since I haven’t watched any Gundam series besides SEED and SEED Destiny. I would watch them, if I had more time. (I do mind the old designs though…)

So who’s going to clean all that mess up?

But in the end, the point that strikes even the most superficial of all bloggers (ie. me), is the lack of development of the new characters. Most of them were simply too poorly treated, and too many superfluous details ruined the whole perception of those. More like, there have been already a lot of characters in GS, and now that a great deal of them remained in GSD until the end, they somewhat steal the newcomer’s screen time. Dullindal and Shinn were most probably the only one we could get to know better in the whole ordeal, and he was only a goddamn emo. All the other new characters, Rey, Lunamaria, Meyrin, Talia, who also did play a big role in the whole story, were treated like secondary characters, which somewhat hurt the general feel a lot. Yes, there were way too many characters, and the producers should have stuck to a few select ones. I mean, either keep the old staff with Kira, Athrun, etc, or the new staff, with Shinn and co, but not everyone altogether! Because, wiith the main plot revolving around Kira, Athrun and Cagalli anyway, it’s only obvious that the new characters will not be treated in-depth. Damn, I wish I could know Meyrin better… she was hot. But no, all she did was merely help Athrun escape from ZAFT. For the rest, she helped out at the Archangel but she really didn’t play any substantial role (nor do I remember her appearing anymore after she called her sister).

I now remembered, what exactly was the reason for Neo’s sudden change of heart?? He was the most cruel of the bad guys, because he kept ‘using’ his tools (the ‘extended’ children, Stellar, Auel and Sting, who were as mindless as can be), he even broke his promise with emo Shinn not to ‘reuse’ Stellar again, and then suddenly he feels sympathy for the Archangel, etc. Hurr… I guess his pervertedness made him stay by Murrue’s side all along, since he knew she wanted to hump him sometime. Mwaha.

Heck, that last part inside the Messiah was really ridiculous. For a reason that even he could have easily found out himself, Rey suddenly shoots Dullindal. Now, Rey was, until VERY recently, a nobody, then suddenly he becomes Raww’s clone, and now he’s a chicken wuss. Swallowed the wrong pills I suppose? Well anyways, suddenly, Talia pops out of nowhere, and tells Kira she has a son (WHERE???) and that Murrue should visit him someday. Kira can leave, and we got our faggot family together. “Let’s die altogether!” – “Mother…” BOOM!!! …They really deserved to die. For they are too dumb for everything.

This is a bit too cheap.

Geez, there are quite a lot of points to prove all of these points, but I guess I now covered the main points of people’s criticism on Gundam SEED Destiny. Except for the faulty character development, most of the critic applies to the last ten episodes of the series. However, as much as I’d like to agree, I still beg to differ though: I liked this series. Despite all the flaws that are mainly because of time constraints, I found GSD very enjoying, and even though I didn’t feel the same kind of satisfaction I felt after watching GS, it still wasn’t THAT bad. At least not as bad as many people denounce it to be. It still had a nice share of emotion, fun, and lots of action. In the whole SEED series, I really became fond of the characters, especially Kira, Lacus, Cagalli, Fllay and Meyrin. I really am going to miss them, although it seems like there are still a lot of doujins and parodies I still have to discover.

Granted, the end was rushed, but I have seen that in many other good anime as well (the most recent example I can recall was Yakitate!! Japan). Character development, well, I didn’t really care about Shinn and the rest, and since the main focus was on Kira & co., my fix of awesomeness was secured (AND Meyrin didn’t die, which made my heart rejoice ^^). Seriously, I couldn’t care less if Shinn died in the last episode, for he’s an emo retard with a sister complex. As I said in the beginning, the end WAS way too farfetched, and there is something missing, it’s incomplete. But once again, despite all this, I still am positive that it was not a waste of time having watched this. Yes, the many cons about this anime sure seem to outnumber and to outweigh the pros, yet I still pretend that there was enough good material here to make it a half-way decent anime. Then again, I urge you to take into consideration that I have basically no valuable reference in mecha anime (and anime in general, I usually am not very nitpicky), so maybe my inexperience somehow makes me want to brand GSD a GAR anime, with my slightly biased judgment. Even so, I don’t think I’d change my opinion on this very soon. Heh, Some say that I have yet to watch the old Gundam series, which I would have loved to do now if I didn’t have finals now.

Now I shall find the time to watch the FINAL PLUS episode, which I read on Wikipedia (by omitting the spoiler tag) is merely an extended version of the final episode. Maybe there will be one two more details there, who knows. It still won’t best the mediocrity of the end though. Oh, I forgot. I mentioned it a few… paragraphs (o_o!) above, there’s a Gundam SEED Movie in the making. Well, I think, after this rather open ending, I think there needs to be something like a final plot to finish the story once and for all. I just don’t hope it’ll be anything near a recap episode or I’ll start hating it.

OMG! Is it already over?!? :’(

I hope I didn’t forget anything. With this said, the case Gundam SEED Destiny is closed. Hope you enjoyed reading this rather long comment, and that I triggered your interest into sharing your own opinion about this as well. I’m curious to see how many people really think it sucked so badly.