Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED Destiny Special Edition

It is not very often that a Gundam series gets a sequel. In fact, it almost never, ever happens. Not unless you consider all the Universal Century series to be prequels/sequels to one another. But for the alternate universes, sequels are extremely rare. SEED is one of few to get a sequel, one that it honestly did not need and really does nothing for it. SEED Destiny is not a failure or flop by any stretch of the imagination. It is, however, kind of a rehash of the original SEED. Many plot points feel very familiar, along with the returning cast of characters who basicallyfill the same roles they did before. If I honestly wanted to, I could end the review right here. However, you all deserve an explanation so I will continue. The characters of SEED Destiny are mostly the same as before. You have Kira Yamato who has now settled down with Lacus Clyne, Athrun Zala who has secretly settled down with Cagalli Yula Attha, and the rest are kind of off doing their own thing. And this is the perfect time to introduce a new main cast, right? Right? Well yes and no. For this series, we have a new main protagonist in Shinn Asuka, an orphan who watched as his parents and younger sibling were blown to bloody chunks right before his very eyes. Gruesome isn't it? It's kind of the pedigree of the SEED series as this point. Along with him we have Lunamaria and Meyrin Hawke along with PLANT Supreme Chancellor Guilbert Durandal. So really everyone except the new cast are living peacefully in this post war world. That is, until a new war brakes out. And at first only Athrun, who has returned to ZAFT, and the new cast are involved. Then Kira eventually gets involved and the story begins to spiral out of control from there. The art remains largely identical to the original SEED in that it was all done by computer, though the CG does look somewhat better than before. The colors are nice and bright, the water looks great, the characters look cool. Everything is essentially still intact from the previous series. The only real difference being that the original cast now looks noticeably two years older as it should be. They look more mature somehow while still looking quite youthful and childlike. Their fashion sense is still kind of questionable though. The sound effects are all reused and the music is more or less the same as it was before. Sure, the soundtrack is entirely new, but it sounds the same none the less due to the fact that this is a SEED sequel. And that isn't a minus. In my SEED review, the soundtrack was one of the best parts, and this soundtrack does not disappoint. More Rie Tanaka, more T.M. Revolution, and more piano songs. What's not to love about the soundtrack? By this point you're probably beginning to wonder why I seem a bit agitated just talking about this series. Well, you already read my thoughts on the characters. They're pretty much the same in every aspect and the original cast honestly gets no further development. But what really grinds my gears with this series, is the fact that it did not stick to its guns AT ALL. It started out strong and showed a lot of promise by trying to tell a story about a new group of characters who were meant to be the successors to the original cast. However, that also required that they actually surpass the original cast. Which unfortunately did not happen because the writers wife was in love with Kira and Athrun, meaning that at the halfway mark of the series, when both characters were more or less supposed to(And sorry for the spoilers, but it is extremely hard to not emphasize my dislike without them) kick the bucket to let the new characters shine and have their own development... they didn't. Deus Ex Machina's be damned. The relationship between Athrun and Cagalli was also screwed up because the same person disliked Cagalli. It was just ridiculous how much of a mess the story became because of someone screwing around with it. It had a lot of potential to go big, but it chose to go home instead for no discernable reason. Ok, I'm done venting now. So before I blow a gasket, I'm gonna end this review so I can cool off and go to bed because it is 5:17am as of the time of this writing. It is hard for me to recommend this series to anyone, but the most diehard SEED fans. I can watch it on a whim, but I'm not really satisfied with what was given. And as you'll notice I skipped the Theme portion of the review, and that is because this series is dual theme, the second of which doesn't pop up until about the 75% completion point. And so its a big spoiler and thus will not be discussed. In the end, SEED Destiny is not horrendous. It is however, a series that did not need to exist. Perhaps the flaws of Destiny could have been corrected had the SEED theatrical film actually be finished as it was the third and final part to the SEED saga. However, it appears that said theatrical film will never see the light of day and thus the SEED story will remain unfinished. Unless you're completely okay with how SEED or SEED Destiny ended, in which case the point is moot. Addendum: While writing this review, I spoke of it as if it were the 50 episode television series. It is, however, the four part compilation film series. The films improve the storyline of Destiny to some extent, telling it from Athruns more neutral point of view, redoing some scenes, etc. So this gives Destiny some extra points in the story and character categories. If you must watch Destiny, I vastly recommend these films over the original TV series any day of the week because they are the undisputed definitive Destiny story.