English Dub Review: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Freedom

I am going to preface this entire review with the following sentence. Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Freedom will do absolutely nothing to change your feelings about the series. If you love the series, you’ll love Freedom. If you don’t, then this movie is going to be a painful two hours.

I couldn’t make it through either series of Gundam SEED. The over-reliance of the teenage drama that you see on shows like Degrassi made the show unbearable. Despite the show’s 20 plus year history, Gundam kept a focus on International politics, the intrigue of said politics, and the mech fights to the forefront. Of course there were stories involving love and emotions, but it was secondary or tertiary to what people want and are accustomed to. I wish this was the least of our problems here, but things get much worse. I expected more from 20 years of development, but then I remembered this was Gundam: Seed.

Furthermore, the entire movie is pretty much about a nice guy who thinks he’s entitled to the love of someone getting rejected. This is the theme of the movie. There are two stories that follow misguided love…in a god damn mecha movie. The first is the Prime Minister of Foundation, Orphee Lam Tao thinking he’s entitled to the love of Lacas based on the fact that they were both designed to be together. On top of that, because of this indoctrination, he doesn’t see the world around him, nor the woman who actually does love him.

Concurrently, there is a very similar secondary plot thread going, where newcomer Agnes Giebenrath got the mega thirst for Kira. She tried multiple times over the course of the first half of the movie trying to have Kira’s children. She wanted to dance, and got denied. She then tried to get Kira off of Lacas right after he saw her with Orphee, and still got stonewalled. This ultimately caused Agnes to flop after getting manipulated by Shura. Again, there was no sublety. This was slammed right on our head. For a movie that was over two hours long, they smashed so much over our heads, and somehow managed to feel like the writers got bored and spun wheels.

For the first three quarters of Freedom was spent on interjecting the antagonist faction into the story, sewing their plot very fast. This subterfuge had zero surprise. Orphee Lam Tao just oozed slime right away, and his ability to psychically manipulate Lacus into doing what he wants had zero cover up or intrigue. On top of that, you see his Black Knights use the same abilities to force Kira to trigger an attack from Eurasia. This was the trigger for the Black Knights to attack Team Kira, and for Agnes Giebenrath to swap teams. This caused all of the Compass pilots to die or lose their Gundam, and the Archangel to get destroyed.

Gundam SEED: Freedom started out with a beautiful opening sequence where the ravages of war broke out. Of course the Gundams of Compass show up to do their best Team America: World Police impressions and save this area from the coming invasion. Going in completely blind, only knowing of Kira and Athrun. Knowing Kira, he was the most poorly written main character, and most of his plot was very flimsy. Throughout the few episodes I did see when SEED here in 2004, Kira was just weak and whining. Absolutely nothing changed. 

The comparisons to the history of Gundam continues to be prevalent throughout Freedom. There were songs that illicit memories of both Gundam: Wing and G-Gundam. As Freedom goes on, you see that a lot of the main players and some of the ancillary all get Gundams like they’re starter Pokemon. The terrible thing about going in blind is that you know these characters are important enough to get Gundams. However, you have zero ideas who they are, or why they’re important. At first, I thought Shinn was Athrun, until I kept seeing him. Kira, Shinn, and Lunamaria all got Gundams that paid homage to God Gundam from G-Gundam, Wing Zero from Gundam Wing, and the original RX-78 Gundam. I don’t use this term often. But this team of Mary Sues got plot armor handed to them.

I wanted to like Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Freedom. I really did. I was hoping this was going to get me into the show, considering there was over 20 years of development. I was hoping that 20 years would give the writers enough time to learn how to give a character development. We got two hours of spinning wheels and uninspired fighting sequences that amounted to nothing. None of the characters who were in the antagonist faction stuck around, and Agnes flipped back. This is essentially filler.

The ending of Freedom was probably the most off-putting out of everything. I could have suffered willingly through this weird “are they adults because they still look like pre-teens” love story if the climax of the movie had a really killer fight at the end. Like, how is the final battle decided with Lacas in her skintight pink and white body suit arrive at Kira’s new Freedom Gundam, and turn it into a Wish.com God Gundam? I can see it now. Lacas in this body suit is going to be the “rule 34” wet dream of neckbeards everywhere who had a crush on her when SEED came out.

But the fight didn’t get anywhere near where I expected it to be…especially with 20 years of development behind it. Everything was abrupt. The pacing didn’t feel natural at all, and it made everything feel forced and unneeded. Maybe that’s the hidden theme of the movie. I’m not really sure, and at this point, I don’t care.

This was a painful two hours. If I wasn’t there to watch Freedom for this review, I would have walked out. It took too long to get to any type of relevant plot movement, and by the time it mattered, I checked out. If I wanted to watch teenage cringe drama, I would go watch Degrassi. This was just 2004 era anime at its worst, and it should have stayed there. All this did was make me want to watch Amuro Ray and Char Aznable do their dance.

Like I said in the beginning, this was everything that Gundam SEED was in 2004. If you enjoyed SEED back then, or any of the ancillary media that came out after, you’ll probably love this movie. The aura and feel of the series is still there. There are plenty of moments interjected of flashbacks to what happened in the series and first movie. There is a lot to want to see if you’re a fan.

But, if you’re like me, this is everything that Gundam SEED was in 2004. Kira still sucks as a main character. He thinks he has to do everything to make Lacas happy. He throws a fit when she’s seemingly off with Orphee, and Athrun of all people beats the bricks off of Kira, and kicks some sense into Kira’s dense head. This scene was the only one where I had some enjoyment because Kira was finally made out to be the chump that he is.

Thank god it’s over. I don’t want to see this timeline again.