Thursday, September 01, 2005
Review: Gundam SEED Destiny 44
Well Destiny was rather nondescript this week so this isn’t going to be much of a review. It’s one of the most obvious problems with the show infact. Episodes like this are quite frequent – bridges between Events where nothing much happens outside of people and things moving from place A to place B to setup the next Event. In this case it’s the build up to the inevitable final battle in space. Interestingly there’s been very little space based action in Destiny compared to the Gundam of old but it is something of a tradition that requires all final battles to take place there.
Of course now that I’ve said things didn’t happen, I realise that they did but they didn’t actually feel like they were happening. If you jot down bullet points of what went on, there was plenty but it all seemed so static. I came away from the episode thinking that nothing had happened, you see. Part of the reason for this is probably Destiny’s reliance on the face slapping inter character tension and high volume action arcs. When an episode isn’t taking part in either of that to any great extent then it fades rapidly into the background.
I was glad to see the dual Lacus situation being brought closer to a resolution. I’m generally impressed with the way the idol concept plays out in Destiny, especially when the characters ignore it or dismiss it as being silly. It doesn’t really ring true to see the majority of people actually caring what a singer wants them to do though. It’s the scale of the SEED universe that cripples this concept the most, I think. It’s a concept that wouldn’t seem out of place in a Phillip K. Dick novel but it somehow feels totally alien to a Gundam show. Maybe it’s just my residual hatred of the entire “music/singer saves the universe in a serious mecha war show” concept. Still, it’s not the main focus of the series by any means so it has worked well enough so far. My only fear now is that the final few episodes will contain some universe shattering actions as the result of something a Lacus says to humanity.
A beam/laser/solar weapon that uses colonies as mirrors to destroy other colonies? Shocked I am, truly shocked. I would NEVER have expected this in a Gundam show, especially not one so unlike any Gundam show prior to it!
It would be nice if someone sat us all down and explained the cloned people with long hair situation and exactly what has gone on with Mwu. I don’t suppose this will happen but the constant hints and flashes need to have more of a resolution to them, and currently the Mwu-as-masked-bad-guy/amnesia bit makes the first two thirds of the series look somewhat weird. I’m sure that’s all too much to ask though.
Previously:
Gundam SEED Destiny 43
Posted by Alex Hopkinson @ 2:32 PM
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