EFFORTPOST Eugenics, 9/11, Idol Singers, and almost Two Decades of Development Heck — An /h/anime review of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom (And analysis of the Gundam Cosmic Era)

There are two types of Gundam fans: Gundam fans, and SEED fans.

-- @Pepperglue

For those of you who aren't huge mecha weebs — in other words those of you who've had s*x before — you probably weren't aware that May 7th and 8th marked the wide US release of Gundam SEED Freedom, the theatrical continuation of SEED Destiny from 2004. After twenty years the Cosmic Era Gundam setting has returned to the silver screens of fathom event weebery, and like it or not I'm going to effortpost about it. But before I get to my movie review towards the bottom of the post, I'll take the time to explain the history of this particular Gundam AU and why this Duke Nukem Forever of a movie is so hype (at least in Japan )

If you don't know what Gundam is, I happen to have an effortpost about it In short — Gundam is a Japanese giant robot franchise that has gone down as one of the most popular and iconic Japanese things ever, of all time. Consider that the Nips have built 1:1 scale models of the thing.

And on that note, the Chinese have built a statue of the Freedom Gundam, the only mobile suit not from the original setting to get 1:1 scale representation.

So what is Gundam SEED anyway?

Gundam Cosmic Era

The original Gundam anime debuted way back in 1979, and though it had a slow start and was actually cancelled prematurely, the franchise continued through strong model kit sales until the relevant television people brought it back for 85's Zeta Gundam This was followed by 86's Gundam ZZ, the last Gundam show of Japan's Shōwa era It was also kinda the last regular UC show in that the adventures of original MC Amuro Ray ended with the theatrical Char's Counterattack. Going into the 90's Gundam's popularity was starting to wane and soft reboots came in the form of Gundam F91 and Victory Gundam — both take place in the same timeline as the originals but advanced far into the future with very few references to their predecessors. F91 didn't even make it as an anime and was barely Frankensteined into a feature film in the editing room. Victory Gundam did air on TV but wasn't well received. It's remembered more for Gundam creator Tomino's depression induced angsty writing than anything else. It was also just really weird.

After Victory it was decided Gundam should be rebooted entirely with completely new settings. The first Alternate Universe was Mobile Fighter G Gundam, a radically different take on the concept in which the Gundams were super robots with kung fu powers and the humans were tournament arc fighters who also had superpowers. The main character was an adult (At twenty I think he's still one of the oldest Gundam MCs) and had the personality of Sasuke and Naruto combined Also the Gundams were ethnic stereotypes

The initial reaction from the veteran Gundam fans was quite hostile But nonetheless the Gundam AUs continued until morale improved After G Gundam came Gundam Wing After War Gundam X and Tomino's very own Turn A Wing is especially notable because while I think it was just considered okay in Japan It went down in history as the first Gundam show to be broadcast in the United States. Wing is what created loads of western Gundam fans and significantly contributed to the rise of weebery in general. That includes some of the people on this very site.

the one that is actually why I am an otaku is Gundam Wing. The birthday I had in second grade was Gundam Wing Related, with my dad attempting to make a Gundam Deathsycthe on the cake.

— @MatsurisAhoge

Going into the post world Sunrise needed another new Gundam show for the new millennium. The success of Wing in the west also made them realize they could milk these new mecha markets for all they were worth This new show would be 2002's Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, the start of an AU known to fans as Cosmic Era. SEED would take the series back to its roots and was also released in the west just under two years after the Japanese broadcast (as opposed to many years later )

Development and Broadcast

SEED Is popular for mech designs and with women.

An early idea for SEED is that it would be like the original Mobile Suit Gundam updated for the 21st century. Whereas the earlier AUs went in their own directions, SEED is similar to ‘79 almost to the point of a retelling. Both settings feature a future in which mankind has colonized Earth's orbit with large space stations. A war breaks out between the space people and the relatively heroic Earth government. The main character is a hapless teenager conscripted to pilot the eponymous Gundam and is kept around in spite of great whining because he's very good at it.

A defining plot point of the Cosmic Era setting is genetic engineering. In SEED's backstory the "Coordinator Boom" allowed people to fine tune designer babies and give them any number of ideal traits, setting them on track to be anything from astronauts to super soldiers to idol singer waifus As the decades went by enough Coordinator generations were created that some began to associate only with other Coordinators and form their own enclaves. Coordinators also developed a culture of selective breeding and arranged marriages between each other so as to keep their desirable genes pure. Eventually a rift formed between Coordinators and "Natural" humans and extremists in the latter tried to suppress them "for the preservation of our pure and blue world" With the governments of Earth turning reactionary and because they didn't have a nation of their own, Coordinators started squatting in humanity's newly built space stations and formed the breakaway government ZAFT. Gundam SEED takes place a year into the full scale war that soon follows.

SEED was directed by Mitsuo Fukuda who had previously worked on Future GPX Cyber Formula and Gear Fighter Dendoh for Sunrise. He was a huge Gundam fan and had asked to work on the newest project. In developing the series with Bandai he was happy to "redo" Gundam ‘79 for the 2000s. He also wanted a more "modern war" setting and in his own words 9/11 was a major influence for the conflict and MC Kira Yamato's pacifist ideals The show's producer suggested Saving Private Ryan as an influence. Apparently the resulting early storyboards were rejected for being too violent

The show's themes of racism, xenophobia, and political conflict were meant to mature the series and allude to the War on Terror. Fukuda created the racial conflict between Naturals and Coordinators as a "human element" to the giant robot action and compared the Earth-ZAFT War — which resulted after the destruction of an entire space colony — to the "unbroken cycle of hatred" between Christians and Muslims since Christ's death As Kira is a coordinator who fights as an Earth pilot, Fukuda compared the concept to an Islamic soldier fighting in the US military

SEED also took strides to focus more on conceptual sci-fi and reinterpreted the original MSG's Star Wars influences Originally Tomino basically ripped off George Lucas' Jedi and had characters with psychic powers called Newtypes, cryptically said to represent the future of humanity in space. Production wise Amuro being a powerful Newtype justified having a random teenager stay in the Gundam's pilot seat rather than a trained soldier. Coordinators in SEED are similar but generally lack supernatural powers. Their differences from normal people being genetic rather than abstract fuels the animosity between the factions and the themes of racial divide. Kira himself is eventually revealed to be a super coordinator to justify his piloting skills and give him sympathetic ties to the Coordinator enemies that Amuro didn't have to Zeon. Besides eugenics SEED also continues the original's themes of creating social divides from sci-fi ideas — for example what it might be like if people lived in space long enough to feel the Earth governments no longer represented them. Having genetics as a theme was itself inspired by all the GMO and cloning whatnot that was popular in early noughties futurology.

Fittingly enough for a ‘79 retelling, art for the mecha was done by MSG veteran Kunio Okawara, the designer for the majority of the mobile suits in the original anime. Kimitoshi Yamane contributed as well, preferring to focus on the ships, planes, and ground vehicles. Apparently Junichi Akutsu also served as a shadow designer for the series, cleaning up some of Okawara's designs for animation and practical model kits. Toshihiko Sahashi was the main composer. Fukuda's wife Chiaki Morosawa was the head scriptwriter.

You'll start to notice as SEED goes on that it gleefully rehashes 0079 with only a thin veneer of paint and a lot less of the charm and deep characterization. SEED does deploy its side characters wrll enough to make the show watchable if a little bland and souless.

— @kongojunglecel

SEED premiered in Japan on October 5th, 2002. Bandai Entertainment licensed the animation on February 15th, 2004 and it soon made its debut in the United States and Canada where, hilariously, it was edited down to a Y7 rating in the name of toy sales. This required about a twentieth of the anime to be cut.

SEED was a huge success and has left a great legacy upon the community of Japan and abroad. Some of the major characters were Top 10 favorite character lists of Newtype magazine 12 years after the initial run and the merchandise sold in the millions. Cosmic Era mobile suits continue to do well in Bandai sales are are a huge reason why the Freedom movie continued development even after so many years. SEED was popular in America too and many millennials and zoomers remember it as the second Gundam show they ever watched after Wing.

This isn't to say there are no criticisms of the show, and if anything the fandom's perception of Cosmic Era has actually declined since the noughties. The complaints about certain things like beam spam, melodrama, stock footage, and Kira Yamato surviving several implausible situations like some sort of Jesus have become memetic at this point. Many also complain about the animation quality. SEED was the first Gundam show and one of the first animes to be animated in an entirely digital format, and unfortunately the growing pains are quite evident. Even several HD remasters since 2002 haven't entirely fixed the issues.

There is also a divide in Cosmic Era perception between the Japanese and Western fandoms. The latter often take issue with SEED being a retread of Universal Century whereas Japan loved this aspect. Japan in general elevates CE to a solid all time second place ranking just behind the original while Americans are more likely to be divided in opinion.

Still, SEED was undeniably popular and so Bandai continued the setting. Personally I think most western fans who hate the show are letting their opinions of the sequel bleed into the original.

Sequelitis and Development Heck

And SEED Destiny takes a giant dumb in it as they bring back Kira "Jesus" Yamato.

SEED Destiny was the next major Gundam installment and represented the first time an AU got a second full length show as a continuation. The majority of the SEED staff returned and it was once again directed by Fukuda. The show is notably inspired by the ‘85 sequel series Zeta Gundam just as its predecessor was inspired by MSG — except when it's not.

The plot follows new protagonist Shinn Asuka, except when it doesn't, and previous characters Kira and Athrun serve as his mentors the way Char and Amuro mentored Zeta MC Kamille — except when they're the focus instead. The show continues the plot and character developments of SEED, except when it forgets. Otherwise the show takes everything from the original up to eleven, including braless space titties

Course it also seems to have twice the stock footage, beam spam, and animation goofs. SEED Destiny is almost universally considered a step down from its predecessor, and while still regarded as decent or alright to many Japanese fans, westerners hate it and still regard it as the scourge of the franchise. The show is disliked for copying Zeta in an awkward way, failing to develop Shinn properly, having a confusing and overly melodramatic plot, and for an unpopular ending that ruined all of Cosmic Era for some people. The director's recut of the original airing notably altered the ending in response to fandom unpopularity. Memetically, Kira's perceived invincibility was so bad some fans actually wanted him to die It's very rare anyone on an English language forum says anything good about SEED Destiny these days. Personally I didn't think it was as bad as people say, but I also acknowledge it represents a great stepdown that soured CE at the height of its popularity.

But in terms of things Bandai cares about SEED Destiny was still a success with solid ratings and DVD sales. Most fans still enjoyed the mobile suit designs at least and SEED Destiny still contributes to the perpetually high sales of Cosmic Era model kits.

If nothing else the show gave us this thing

Though SEED Destiny was wrapped up and Sunrise was already planning it's next AU, Cosmic Era had cemented it's popularity and would continue to a degree in the form of manga, two short OVAs, video games, countless meta references, and continued model kit sales including a few retroactively added designs from the HD remasters. All in all Cosmic Era is arguably the consistently second most popular Gundam setting and is certainly the second most developed.

And so Sunrise announced the tentatively titled Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Movie at Sony Music Anime Fes' 2006, intended to be the first theatrical Gundam movie since F91

Alas this was only the beginning of an eighteen year development that would last well after subsequent Gundam settings came and went. In 2008 it was stated that returning scriptwriter Morosawa had completed the writing for the movie, but also revealed she had been feeling ill since SEED Destiny. She asked for the fans' patience and for years no further official statements were made on the film's development

It doesn't seem like there's more specific reason for the film's near abandonment. I'd wager big daddy Bandai wanted the movie out when SEED Destiny was still fresh, but with the delays and the eventual release of successor series Gundam 00 the resources for the film were given to the new AU instead. 00 did indeed get a movie in Awakening of the Trailblazer while SEED's project remained in hiatus. Morosawa would pass away in 2016

But in spite of all contemporary doubt and the haters, anti-coordinators, and IBO fellators, CE would rise from the dead not unlike its messianic protagonist Takanori Nishikawa, a musician who contributed several songs to both the SEED and SEED Destiny soundtracks, claimed that a staff member at the 2019 Gundam 40th Fes. “Live-Beyond” concert told him production was still underway. In May of 2021, Bandai Namco Group officially announced the "Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Project ignited" initiative during the opening ceremony for the afore-pictured life-size Freedom Gundam statue in Shanghai, and headlining the initiative was the previously announced film project. The official website for the film opened on July 2, 2023, revealing it as Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom

I dislike 00 more than I dislike SEED. At least SEED was indirectly responsible for giving us Cross Ange, and was a massive financial success so it saved the franchise. 00 was just a modernized version of Wing. But all of these shows are masterpieces compared to the utter shitshow that was IBO. That was genuinely one of the worst shows I have seen in my entire life.

— @forgotmyoldacc

First of all, let us give thanks to Bandai that more UC and CE content like The Origin and SEED Freedom has delivered us from the smelly smegma-buttered that was Iron-Blooded Orphans and the masturbatory yuri bait that is Witch From Mercury. Thank you Bandai in the sky and may there ever be yet another Freedom Gundam that needs purchasing.

Skipping ahead to the film's release (In Nipland ) SEED Freedom was immediately popular with fans and in its first three days sold 630,000 tickets and earned 1.06 Billion Yen, the highest three-day opening ever for a Gundam movie. By the next week, it has become the highest grossing Gundam film ever, surpassing Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space in the process with 2.68 billion yen.

As of this May the number has climbed to over 4.5 billion. The movie is planned for international release in 56 countries and territories, with May 7th and 8th being the dates for the widespread US release of the sub and dub respectively.

And now we come to my review

SEED Freedom: Dramneurodivergent Approved

Offical Rating: Autinema (Neurodivergent Cinema ) Definitely take your neurodivergent friends and if you don't have any then take some Gundams and make vroom noises Do not take any dates They won't understand the intricate CE lore and the sappy scenes may make them want to kiss you

Regarding the details,

The Mobile Suits

This is what we all really wanted to see right?

MC Kira Yamato's initial mobile suit, intended as an update to the original Freedom Gundam It's got a solid design and a nice reimagining of the color scheme that sets it apart from its predecessor. However the suit isn't actually Kira's main, climatic battle suit and you can sort of tell from the lack of, I don't know, grandeur to it. Still a nice design and I like that it's more in line with the Freedom than the Strike Freedom.

In typical CE fashion, Kira loses his mech halfway through the movie and basically gets a Dragon Ball powerup for the finale. Interestingly the Mighty Strike Freedom is actually an upgrade package to the aging Strike Freedom rather than a brand new suit. It serves as a nice meta bookend as not only does the movie show a Freedom into Strike Freedom transition yet again, but the Mighty upgrade being an attachment brings to mind his OG Strike Gundam from the very beginning.

If you thought the original Strike Freedom didn't have enough gold and that the Akatsuki had too much, this guy finds a balance and weaves it into the Freedom backpack wings which I liked. The gold is also fitting because this thing gives Kira Super Saiyan powers. Admittedly the laser spam of late CE is a little outside the realm of plausible conceptual sci-fi. Lacus also sits in the cockpit of the Mighty Freedom which brings to mind the Harute from the 00 movie.

And btw the Akatsuki shows up again too

Athrun's MS line continues with the Immortal Justice which funnily enough shows up before him in the movie, temporarily piloted by Shinn. It gets to live the whole way through unlike the Rising.

Shinn and Lunamaria eventually get updated versions of their old suits back. Apparently Shinn was a bad fit for the Justice since the movie treats him like a chump until the previously titular Gundam from the last series is returned, at which point he goes crazy again but as a good guy this time. The Impulse was modelled after its earlier version, the designers noting they'd planned to base it off the Destiny Impulse from MSV before deciding the original would stand out better from Shinn's Destiny. It comes with new backpack upgrades that again bring to mind the old Strike Gundam in a meta way.

Both mobile suits get newly animated sequences directly referencing their old stock footage spam from SEED Destiny. It's funny because that used to piss me off watching the anime. Now it's nostalgic, maybe because it wasn't literally stock footage.

The movie continued SEED Destiny's tradition of updating UC Zeon designs and giving them to teenagers. CE takes on the Gelgoog and Gyan show up,

Along with a Z'Gok piloted by Athrun, reminding the audience he was a sorta Char clone back when. The movie even pokes fun at dat chunkiness as Athrun literally hid his Justice inside of the former at one point. Another scene even has the main characters doing Frogman shit like at Jaburo

The main bad guys call themselves Black Knights and have MS fashioned accordingly. The designs here are a little over the top but in a way the stylized nature shows their technological advancement over more industrialized MS. I was more than reminded of the Cosmo Babylonia knight esque suits from F91, and as the bad guys from both movies style themselves as aristocrats, I doubt it's a coincidence. They even have fluttering energy "capes" like how the F91 mobile suits had energy banners.

The main antagonist flies something like a dark inversion of the Strike Freedom crossed with the suped up Cosmo Babylonia knight suits crossed with a little of Full Frontal's Sinanju. It's an interesting if ostentatious design that if nothing else succeeds at being different from anything else on screen in Cosmic Era. Though it does resemble the over the top designs of the latter manga like the Amaterasu.

And speaking of Unicorn, one thing about the movie that the kind of person who actually reads all this would appreciate are the cameos from earlier Cosmic Era suits not unlike the UC MS porn in Unicorn's battle sequences. Everything from the Windam to the GINN to those furry zoid things makes an appearance at some point, all lovingly rendered in non-stock footage

Even Yzak and Dearka get their old Gundams back

The Writing

I'll try not to spoil too much In terms of quality I'll say it's somewhere between SEED and Destiny. It seems like the staff really wanted a take two on SEED Destiny's storyline because the movie plays out very similarly.

As a Gundam Movie

All the original characters are walking anime tropes. The people you think will be bad are, in fact, bad. An annoying femcel's arc goes where you think it will. One of the main villains is a loli for reasons I didn't pick up on kind of like the little girl from Endless Waltz but actually evil. There are tons of flashbacks to Gilbert and the new villains will actually make him seem well written in comparison.

SEED Freedom handles returning characters well though and went out of its way to patch up a few fandom bugaboos. Kira is solidly the main character so screentime isn't juggled awkwardly between him, Athrun, and Shinn. Kira's character strengths are there but he also takes licks and learns from other characters without being perfect. Amusingly the movie gives him another Jesus moment but only in setting. His survival is obvious to the audience -- nothing like being in an exploding Gundam and somehow escaping off-screen.

Shinn finally gets to be a normal heroic protagonist though his situation is a little unsure and he's often just comedy relief. He does get to go ham once back in the Destiny though and Stella even makes a non-annoying cameo. When he was a little took weak in Destiny, Athrun here is back to being a badass and steals the show. Destiny also made his relationship with Cagalli ambigous for some reason so this movie made sure to pair them again. There's even a scene where Athrun defeats a mind-reading enemy by overloading him with horny thoughts of her

All the secondary characters I could remember were back. Ramius is still milfish Yzak and Dearka get real action scenes this time. The bridge crew from SEED show up a few times. Even the ZAFT captain who was just nervous all the time is recurring. The characters often get nice little snippets of memberberries like Andrew Waltfield showing up alongside a BuCUE and Mu getting a Newtype flash that saves him from attack.

The movie's politics are a little predicatble i.e. yet another flareup between Naturals and Coordinators, but the exposition left just before overstaying its welcome. The final battle was nice and neurodivergent filled with ridiculous power ups, one on one duels, nostalgic references, new mobile suit debuts, anime flavored worldview rants, and a nice Michael Bay's worth of explosions. The in me loved it, though normal people might think it lasts too long.

Course normal people aren't going to a Gundam movie.

But what if I'm a Normie?

This movie won't make sense if you haven't seen Cosmic Era, but hey it does have explosions and laser blasts. It doesn't have exposed tiddies but there are jiggle physics

It was definitely action heavy for a Gundam movie, more so than F91, Trailblazer, CCA, and the also recent Cucuruz Doan's Island.

Production Values

Cosmic Era characters are just kind of drawn weird, but that aside the movie is gorgeous. Mobile Suits are all done in CG so there isn't much nostalgic hand drawn action But they look seamless and merge well with the conventional animation around them. The special effects are dazzling and help to sell the beam spam. It ain't so bad when it's not just flat colors on your old fat-backed noughties TV.

The movie does still contain plenty of regular animation and much of it is greatly detailed. For example Fukuda personally drew a scene where Kira and Lacus ride a motorcycle and went on about the specifics up to the bike's reciprocating engine. Fukuda cited Star Wars and Top Gun as visual influences. Several scenes were fine tuned with the in progress computer imagery being printed to paper frame by frame so that Fukuda could directly correct it before recreating the CG. In a way the movie features CGI directed in the manner of animation, fitting for the movie of Gundam's first digital broadcast.

The music was done by some of the same creatives from the original shows including Takanori Nishikawa. One of the old TM Revolution themes from SEED even returns alongside the Strike Freedom. Also back is Tetsuya Komuro who hadn't worked on a Gundam project since Char's Counterattack.

The English dub features most of the cast from the NYAV Post redub of SEED Destiny. Shinn was replaced however and Mu is actually voiced by his original actor from before the remaster. I watched it in English because I may be but at least I'm not

Final Thoughts

It was good and it proves mecha kino is alive and well. Hopefully the financial success of this movie leads to more AU attention.

Then again I may be biased since I literally only go to the theatre for robot movies

And if you're wondering why I longposted about this, you gotta understand this was eighteen years in the making. It was an EVENT