AnimeNfo.com’s Description

The confrontation between the Earth Alliance (Naturals) and Zaft (Coordinators), which originated in economic friction, reached a stalemate. Ultimately, the two sides opted for the last resort of diplomacy – in other words, they went to war. Our story begins roughly a year later. Heliopolis, a resource satellite belonging to a neutral nation, is suddenly attacked by a Zaft mobile suit force. Their goal is to seize the Atlantic Alliance’s newest Gundam mobile suits, which the Alliance has produced here amid total secrecy. The raid is successful, and Zaft captures four of the Gundams. Kira Yamato, a student at an industrial college, is drawn into the conflict when he is reunited with his old friend Aslan Zara. Tragically, Kira finds that his comrade Aslan and the other Coordinators are now his enemies. For patriotism’s sake, Aslan sets out to defeat Kira. One against four… the battle of the Gundams begins!

As an anime fan, the first thing I should warn everyone who wants to watch this is: Don’t get too attached to any characters, they might die sooner than you think.

I’m sorry if you consider this a bit of a spoiler, but honestly, follow my advice. From all the animes I have ever seen this is the one in which the most main, or secondary, characters die.

The story follows two best friends, but mainly one of them, however, due to the circumstances they suddenly find themselves as rivals to one another due to the conflict between the two biggest human nations.

Most of the characters in this show are weird. Some you learn to love, some you’ll love to hate, and some you’ll watch being blown to bits. Perhaps the weirdest one of them all is the main character, Kira. Due to the irony of fate, he was almost forced to join the opposing nation to his, and even though he fights bravely for the ones he protects he falls into a pit of misery every time a battle ends. And it’s awkward that even though everyone wants to look after him, they usually don’t, so some awkward things happen with him.

The other main character, Aslan is Kira’s childhood friend, and he is a much mature and “normal” person than Kira. And as soon as you learn a bit more about him you’ll start wishing Kira was more like him also. Thankfully, that happens.

Every character, from the measly side characters to the main ones suffer transformations throughout the series, however, you’ll notice it more on the teenagers than on the grown ups. This was an aspect of the anime I enjoyed a lot. However, whenever the show tries to be something more than a robot action anime it fails miserably on almost all occasions.

With the exception of one or two cases, every single relationship that develops is strange, and in many cases unnecessary. The show tries to put drama in the thick of the action and succeeds in doing so in most occasions, however, whenever they try to touch romance you’ll feel like you want to fast-forward the episode to the “good part”.

And speaking of the good parts, a Gundam show would not be a Gundam show without Gundams, and excellent battles between them. And as far as those go, this is the show to follow. The Seed series provides the most excellent Gundam action that the fans have ever met. And due to that, and the excellent storyline, this is considered by many the best Gundam show there is.

All in all, I guess what I can say about this anime is that it isn’t the best dramatic nor romantic anime, but it exceeds itself in being one of the best told sci-fi stories. I give this anime a 4 out of 5, no higher because of it’s failed attempts of trying to make itself something it isn’t.

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