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REVIEW: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM Anime Film Review

Reviewer might want to do a rewatch of seed. Just finished one and it's not afraid of fanservice, with several nude shower scenes and nipples added onto characters for the HD release in Seed Destiny

Well, what a funny coincidence, a fansite has just translated a new interview with Fukuda where he talks about those exact points you people are bringing up.

If this Gundam Seed Film gets an English Dub, please let it be from Ocean Cast. If you go on Behind The Voice Actors and go through a voting poll of every character, the majority backed up the Ocean cast.

While I like the NYAV actors, the problem seems to be the mediocre performances. The NYAV groups are not bad actors, they are good actors, but some actors were miscast and it seems the dubbing of the show was rushed.

The actors were given poor directions. Sometimes it is better to be natural than to be performative and overly theatrical. It is hard to do this in anime, but those vital subtle moments and intent were missed.

All this talk of sexual fanservice in SEED has made me think about a few things:
The first is that I may be far more desensitized to it than I ever realized. Like it may have to be insanely egregious or out of place before it even starts to register in my mind. I have been watching entirely too much anime for over 30 years at this point, after all.

But more than that, I wonder if I think about sexual fanservice differently from most people. To me, there's an important difference between what is being shown and why it's being shown. For example, take a shower scene. Does the scene exist so the viewer can see them naked? Or is it used to show the character when they are at their most vulnerable physically (i.e., nude) and mentally--forced to confront their darkest thoughts head on? For another example, do a character's breasts bounce randomly to turn on the viewers or is it because the ship they're on is racked by explosions--and, you know, physics exists.

To bring it back around to SEED specifically. Are there sexualized characters in SEED? Without a doubt. Both Flay and Meer use their sexuality as a weapon. It's a vital part of both their characters and the stories centered around them don't work nearly as well without it.

Is it fanservice? I guess that depends on your own personal definition. Is all potentially sexual content inherently fanservice (every girl that has cleavage, every guy that goes shirtless when wearing a swim suit, etc.)? If you say yes, then you'd be hard pressed to find many anime without any fanservice to speak of--even including those made for kids. If not, it becomes a question of where the line is. For me, it's where the sexualization is done mainly to titillate the audience rather than in service of the plot and characters. However, I freely admit I may be in the minority when it comes to this definition.

Back to the main point, the issue I had with Freedom is that spoiler[a character who, up until now had been rarely if ever sexualized (namely Lacus), is put in a skintight plug suit and pilots a mecha with a cockpit straight out of Cross Ange--i.e., putting the character in the doggy-style position--with a camera that enjoys getting shots of her T&A.] The cockpit design, the flight suit design, and the camera work are all solely for titillation and feel completely at odds with the rest of the anime and its design.

Also, while I'm sure they'll probably have NYAV Post dub this with their cast (and use the secret SEED Destiny dub cast I'm sure they have), it just won't means as much compared to bringing back the original Ocean cast.

Their relationship is further complicated by the appearance of Orphee Lam Tao, a man who seems to be the perfect fit for her on an almost supernatural level. And as the two are forced into close quarters during a diplomatic mission, her confusion only grows—and Kira's mental state deteriorates. All this culminates in a scene of a sexual assault. However, it is one that is quickly aborted and neither graphic nor played for titillation. And, most importantly, it in line with the main theme of the film: pre-determined destiny versus free will.

09jcg wrote:

Reviewer might want to do a rewatch of seed. Just finished one and it's not afraid of fanservice, with several nude shower scenes and nipples added onto characters for the HD release in Seed Destiny

The original did have some suggested/implied sex scenes, it caught flack for it though (animenewsnetwork.com/news/2003-03-13/mainichi-condemned-for-implied-sexuality-in-gundam-seed). SEED HD just added it and expanded on it but didn't seem to catch anyone's attention the second time, despite it being on BS11 at 19:30 JST.

The original dub of SEED is so hamfisted and cringe-worthy in comparison that it's hard for anyone to look at it objectively because of the whole rose-tinted nostalgia glasses. It's the same for so many people with Gundam Wing, too. I'm sorry, but Le Creuset is NOT naturally sounding at all. His entire performance is overly theatrical, sorry. The same people complained about Char being recast, too. It's eye-roll worthy at this point.

The original dub of SEED is so hamfisted and cringe-worthy in comparison that it's hard for anyone to look at it objectively because of the whole rose-tinted nostalgia glasses.

Have you like, you know, listened to the original dub? Have you ever listened to real English-speaking humans as a reference point?
The biggest loss is the sense of competence--there was a measured confidence in so many of the original dub characters, particularly those in authority roles, that's just thrown out. Ades becomes sniveling, Rau loses his calculating intelligence, and the playful cockiness of Mu is nowhere to be found. Everything is flatter, not in the sense that they don't hit the same highs, but they never come back down: Rau is giving sneering villain monologues while tossing out casual orders; Murrue sounds angry and on edge even in moments of relative calm. The new dub doesn't know when to ham it up and when to play it straight, and it ends up with a simmering level of background ham at all times. Or consider the episode previews, where in the new dub the cadence is all off, as if the narrator is reading off a teleprompter having never seen the words before--the emphasis isn't in the right places, it doesn't ebb and flow over the right timescale.

If nothing else the script changes are bad, real bad, and evident from the opening seconds of the very first episode: "We're about to deal a severe blow to those still clinging to the planet's surface" becomes "We're gonna send those filthy surface-dwellers screaming into the hereafter" You can't defend that.

Deacon Blues wrote:

The original dub of SEED is so hamfisted and cringe-worthy in comparison that it's hard for anyone to look at it objectively because of the whole rose-tinted nostalgia glasses.

Have you like, you know, listened to the original dub? Have you ever listened to real English-speaking humans as a reference point?

The biggest loss is the sense of competence--there was a measured confidence in so many of the original dub characters, particularly those in authority roles, that's just thrown out. Ades becomes sniveling, Rau loses his calculating intelligence, and the playful cockiness of Mu is nowhere to be found. Everything is flatter, not in the sense that they don't hit the same highs, but they never come back down: Rau is giving sneering villain monologues while tossing out casual orders; Murrue sounds angry and on edge even in moments of relative calm. The new dub doesn't know when to ham it up and when to play it straight, and it ends up with a simmering level of background ham at all times. Or consider the episode previews, where in the new dub the cadence is all off, as if the narrator is reading off a teleprompter having never seen the words before--the emphasis isn't in the right places, it doesn't ebb and flow over the right timescale.

If nothing else the script changes are bad, real bad, and evident from the opening seconds of the very first episode: "We're about to deal a severe blow to those still clinging to the planet's surface" becomes "We're gonna send those filthy surface-dwellers screaming into the hereafter" You can't defend that.

I thought they absolutely nailed perfectly, and a clear shining point above the original dubs awkward, stilted, slavish adhesion to being a near direct 1:1 to the Japanese script. There are times where that’s perfectly fine, but Gundam Seed I thought definitely benefitted from a little more finesse with its localized script.

I think the new script sounds brilliant here, the old one is very stilted and formal. Like a business transaction being talked about. It would fit in a different Gundam series perhaps, or if these characters were portrayed in such a neutral way.

https://twitter.com/michelle_tan101/status/1356113287671328768
Like come on man. It’s fine if you prefer the original Ocean dub. But don’t you dare try and tell me the new NYAV post dub sounds bad.