Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Grim Reality - IGN

GUNDAM means General Unilateral Neuro-Link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver. The giant robots are controlled as much by the mind of the pilot as by his body. The robots in the Gundam series all have this trait.

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED keeps up another Gundam tradition, conflict between Earth and space colonists. In this case, it's the the Earth Alliance and the Zaft (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty). The ZAFT have modified their bodies genetically, similar to Dr. Bashir in Deep Space Nine.

It was believed that Earth would spank the ZAFT, but that's not been the case. Earth is losing. It's been building five new Gundam suits and hiding them in the neutral space colony of Heliopolis. Now why a neutral colony would allow this to happen is not explained.

An invasion force of ZAFT sneaks in to steal the suits and do so with almost total ease. Things get fouled up, though, when one of the pilots is killed. The fifth Gundam is taken over by Lt. Murrue Ramius and Kira Yamato, a student who blundered into the battle. Yamato has a natural sense for the Gundam and reprograms it to help defend himself and Ramius, who is stunned at his natural abilities. In the process he destroys the fourth Gundam before it can be stolen.

While the Gundam franchise has been milked like a Holstein and has been an excuse for mecha fights for far too long, this series is much more character-driven. At the center of it is Kira, who's crushed to learn his best friend Athrun is now a ZAFT pilot and stole a suit. Kira is a "Coordinator," what the ZAFT call themselves, and Athrun is trying to convince Kira to join his side, but Kira will have none of it. It's not exactly Luke vs. Vader in RotJ but you get the idea.

This series borrows a lot from previous Gundam series. The main battleship, the ArcAngel, is a redesign of the White Base from the original show. Likewise, the Coordinators are just the NewTypes with a new name.

Still, fans of the series will find it enjoyable because it takes so many elements that worked and tells them in a fast-paced way. The first five episodes flew by, with almost nonstop action. Every episode picks up right where the last one left off and the action can be quite intense at times. All told, it's a good start.

Score 7 out of 10

Presented in its original 1.33:1 broadcast ratio, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed is another exemplary anime DVD, free of any interlacing or aliasing problems that so often plague these shows. Every curve is smooth and free of jagged lines. There's nothing at all for compression errors, edge enhancement or any kinds of errors.

Colors overall are beautiful: bright, rich and no bleed. Animation is smooth and free of errors. Then again, so much of this show is CG, they better not screw it up. Hardly any of the shots of the ArcAngel were hand-drawn, especially the battle sequences.

Score: 9 out of 10

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed offers English and Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 with English subtitles. After the excellence of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, this is something of a letdown. My stereo was able to fudge something of a surround sound experience, although most of the surround action was for the show's very rich and borderline overbearing soundtrack.

For action, it's all center channel and somewhat diffused across the three speakers. The same goes for the dialogue. It's pretty much confined to the center channel but occasionally slips into the front channels. It's clean and free of any distortion errors, but for this kind of show, there should have been something more.

Score: 6 out of 10

The disc comes in a standard Amaray case with an insert that lists some of the terms you'll hear used in the series, like the Bloody Valentine Tragedy that is often referenced in the show.

As is often the case, we get almost nothing for extras. There's the standard textless opening sequence, an anime staple, and a remote controlled reference file with information on the Gundam suit piloted by Kira and the ArcAngel.

Score: 1 out of 10