×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
REVIEW: Gundam SEED Destiny: Final Plus DVD




Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8458
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 3:40 am Reply with quote
The fact that tripe like this has a better rating than Death Note's third volume is disturbing and hilarious. There isn't an emptier shell than the CE era of the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise, and not even Final Plus redeems the utter garbage that was Destiny. You can put a pretty shine on trash, but it's still trash.

And in fact, the reviewer seems to agree somewhat, but somehow gives the DVD a good overall rating. Am I missing something here?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website AIM Address My Anime My Manga
Randall Miyashiro



Joined: 12 Jun 2003
Posts: 2451
Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park
PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 5:25 am Reply with quote
I was disappointed in the lack of extras considering it is a $25 DVD with about two episodes worth of content an no real extras. I wish BE would have included the SD theater shorts since this would have been a nice bonus.

The changes are subtle and there are only a couple of new scenes that stand out in my mind most notably the epilogue (as mentioned in review) which is a launch point for further CE adventures.

I really wish that BE would have placed an extra episode on Destiny volume 1 in order to squeeze this OVA along with the final 3 episodes on volume 12 since it doesn't stand alone very well.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime
Gundam Junkie



Joined: 01 Jul 2007
Posts: 89
Location: Great Britain; with an emphisis on Great
PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 6:12 am Reply with quote
One man's trash is another man's treasure, Penguintruth my boy, and SEED is the greatest treasure in the entire Gundam universe as far as I'm concerned.

Aye, I admit Destiny is weaker than the first SEED but it's still a blast.
After all, what is anime for but to entertain?

I'll definately be getting it when they release it over here, as the ending did seem a tad confusing.
(Oh, and Shinn isn't all that bad a chap really. Having your entire family blown away in front of you can do that to a kid).
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8458
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 6:30 am Reply with quote
Gundam Junkie wrote:
One man's trash is another man's treasure, Penguintruth my boy, and SEED is the greatest treasure in the entire Gundam universe as far as I'm concerned.


I fail to see how a faint echo of the Universal Century programs, but without any of the nuance or charisma of them, can be considered a "treasure", let alone the greatest one.

Gundam SEED is a fine show if you like shiny robots and pink explosions, but it has about as much character to it as hentai or visual novel moe fests do.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website AIM Address My Anime My Manga
Xanas



Joined: 27 Aug 2007
Posts: 2058
PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 7:01 am Reply with quote
I'll agree that rating this higher than Death Note is way off base, however I like Gundam Seed Destiny. The flaws in the series could be found in many other series as well, but I've noticed people tend to be a bit pickier when it comes to Gundam shows.

Aside from that, I think "visual novel moe fests" have tons of character, having seen Ef - a tale of memories, Kanon, Clannad, etc. I'm kind of wondering what you mean by the term "character" given the context doesn't make a great deal of sense to me. I don't watch and therefore can't speak for hentai, but I definitely don't see things the way you do at all. Your comparison to visual novel media would be mostly a positive based on what I've seen.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
Gundam Junkie



Joined: 01 Jul 2007
Posts: 89
Location: Great Britain; with an emphisis on Great
PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 7:18 am Reply with quote
Yes the Cosmic Era universe has flaws. I doubt any piece of entertainment ever created is free of flaws, that's human nature.
The original show had is own problems, mainly in my opinion a few silly designs and names for the mecha. (Acguy?) But hell, who cares?

As I mentioned before, it's merely a piece of entertainment.
Both UC and CE entertain me immensely, so they've done their job well.

Character wise- I really liked the characters for both Seed and Destiny.
All bar Flay: I absolutely detested her from the beginning! Evil or Very Mad

I doubt my defence of the Cosmic Era will change your opinion penguintruth, and I do not wish to.
Just try to be more subtle when voicing those opinions, lest you offend others.

Alright, enough of the fluffy psychological crap.
Bring on the big shiny mecha and things that go boom! Very Happy
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Heretic



Joined: 06 Mar 2007
Posts: 177
Location: Laurel, Maryland
PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 10:11 am Reply with quote
I acknowledge that Cosmic Era has its flaws as well, but in all honesty I think (at least SEED) is better than all of the UC shows before it.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Kaioshin_Sama



Joined: 05 Feb 2005
Posts: 1215
PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 12:08 pm Reply with quote
I love how the volume sounds like the name of a Street Fighter Game.

But no more of this, bring on the first Gundam 00 DVD and let's put CE behind us forever.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Primus



Joined: 01 Mar 2006
Posts: 2758
Location: Toronto
PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 4:24 pm Reply with quote
Kaioshin_Sama wrote:
I love how the volume sounds like the name of a Street Fighter Game.

But no more of this, bring on the first Gundam 00 DVD and let's put CE behind us forever.


I like Street Fighter.

As well, you still need the Gundam SEED Movie to come out before you can possibly put the CE era in the rear view mirror, and that is after the yet to be released, Destiny compilation movies.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Anime World Order



Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 389
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2008 9:20 pm Reply with quote
Gundam SEED was surprisingly good, but had some flaws. Gundam SEED Destiny exhibited all of the flaws of the original only amplified tenfold.

How poor at planning must Mitsuo Fukuda and his wife Chiaki Morosawa be if they have 50 episodes to tell a story and spend so much time on flashbacks and recap that they ran out of time to actually have their ending in the show itself? They certainly had the broad strokes of the story figured out since the opening credits always foreshadowed the events of the series, but the actual brass tacks implementation of those plots points left so much to be desired. Heck, Neo Roanoke's mask comes off in the opening credits BEFORE IT HAPPENS IN THE SHOW.

You would think that they'd have learned their lesson when they needed to include the 5 minute actual ending to Gundam SEED on the DVDs, but no: they needed literally ten times that amount to do the ending for SEED Destiny. You know what I blame? I think there's such a thing as listening way too much to the fanbase. Look no further than the entire Meyrin thing as proof. Here we have a character whose sole purpose in the show was to answer the radio, but because otaku were all like "MOEEEEEEE~~~~~" or whatever over the fact she had pigtails or something, her prominence as a character was awkwardly shoehorned in at the expense of other character relationships.

And talk about character assassination. "Jesus Yamato" is practically an Internet meme, and Athrun Zala starts off a grizzled, smart war veteran and ends up completely emasculated. It wouldn't have happened were it not for the fact that Shinn Asuka was completely unlikeable as a protagonist. I move that for all of SEED Destiny's problems, making Shinn turn into a villain a la Anakin Skywalker would have redeemed a whole lot in my eyes. But as it stands, the Cosmic Era timeline and pretty much the entire cast was rendered completely unusable by the end, with nowhere to go.

I'm way more forgiving of series that start off lackluster and end up awesome, like the original SEED did. But I've got much less patience for things that start off showing immense promise only to let you down at the end, and that's what SEED Destiny was. I could go on all day about exactly how and why, but technically I already did.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
belvadeer





PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2008 10:50 pm Reply with quote
Wow Matt Hill put on a poor performance? I always liked him in the TV series as Kira, but you're saying he was terrible in this one? Ouch.
Back to top
sainta



Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Posts: 989
PostPosted: Fri Oct 19, 2012 8:51 am Reply with quote
Ever thought that Shinn was actually supposed to be a tragic hero? The first opening of Destiny already had him fighting Kira.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
aereus



Joined: 08 Jun 2010
Posts: 574
PostPosted: Fri Oct 19, 2012 9:12 am Reply with quote
Must fight urge.... *eye twitch*

Destiny ostensibly tries to copy Zeta Gundam, much like SEED was a remake of 0079. Except it lacks nearly all of the character development found in Zeta. Kira/Lacus already had their development in SEED, so they spend all of Destiny as a straight line of blandness. In order to use Athrun and Cagalli, they basically reset all of their development like SEED never happened -- both are back to whiny indecisiveness.

Then Shinn never mans up like his protege Kamille, and instead stays the whiny easily manipulated tool for the entire 50 episodes. Whereas Kamille gets a Bright Slap or two and turns it around by halfway through the series in Zeta. He's also one of the least skilled Gundam protags in that his only real forte is getting angry. The only saving grace was at least they didn't have him do a sudden conversion at the end -- he stayed the same angry whiner to the end in his broken robot on the moon Smile
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group