Rating: 
Summary: There hasn't been a good Gundam Series since GW & 8thMS..
Review:
Currently Airing on TV, Gundam Seed is set in an alternate Universe but is too closely related to the other Gundam Series to be called original. That said, Gundam Seed is set in a timeline called the cosmic era.
The plotline is basic and sort of generic. A young Coordinator named Kira lives a sheltered life up in a space colony while a war is going on. But he and his friends are suddenly thrown into the war when an orignation known as ZAFT (Zeion) attacks their home to gain five prototype mobile suits (Taken from the first Gundam series).
Kira is suddenly thrown in the cokpit of a prototype mobile suit called "Strike" (Gundam 008: War in the pocket) and gets caught in the war between naturals and Coordnators (Earth federation vs. Zeion). Kira, like all naturals is gifted with abnormal abilities far beyond that of any average human and is able to bring out the full capastes of this prototype Gundam (His character [strength swise] borderlines too closely to Heero Yuy of Gundam Wing). However he finds himself at odds as to who to take sides with while aboard the ship the archangel.
The show is okay in someplaces but the series plays out like a teenagers soap-opera, the animation borderlines between poor and mostly CGI generated images, which makes me wonder what sort of attention to did they pay to the show's art at all. The animations for the characters are a bit stiff and cartoonish and the art is not imprssive.
Much like in 'Gundam Wing' the artists took the road of the so called 'pretty-boy' design probably to gain more female audiences, however it looks far too childish and there's not enough attention on the facial expressions or body proportions to even call it pretty. They even have a character who resembles Zechs Merquise and Char; blonde hair, a fancy military suit, and a white mask. Rau Le Creuset, however lacks depth and character compaired to those two. Espiecally compaired to Zechs Merquise.
The US voice acting caters the cartoonish look by giving you cartoonish voices, the Japanese Dub (no matter how well done it is) does nothing to redeem this show and the Gundams hauntingly resmble that of the first mobiles suits in the Gundam Series "Mobile suit Gundam."
The music can be repetive at times your most likely to hear the same tunes play over and over when they shift to ZAFT from the earth forces. All in all Gundam Seed isn't strong enough to keep your attention for very long, it barely focuses on the plot and the story feels disjointed in many places.
If your fan of the older Gundam series and don't mind the painstakingly obvious reacurring themes and more of a focus on the characters and their relationships instead of the so-called plot then this show's for you. If not your better off sticking to "Gundam: 08TH MS Team" and "Mobile Suit: Gundam Wing".
Rating: 
Summary: Aspires to greatness, but falls quite a bit short
Review: After a year of prodding I finally gave in to pressure and sat through Gundam SEED. The writers of the most recent "Alternate Universe" in the Gundam franchise had a difficult task ahead of them: to write a new series that could stand on its own outside of the Universal Century saga (the "main" Gundam storyline) while still incorporating the human drama that made the UC series great. SEED meets with mixed results.
The storyline is standard Gundam fare: violent conflict has arisen between the Coordinators, genetically modified humans with superior strength and abilities, and their unmodified forebears, the Naturals. This boils down to the classic "earth vs. space" motif, with the Coordinators' nation, ZAFT, living in spaceborne colonies and making strikes against the Earth Alliance.
Sound familiar? Well... it is. Gundam SEED feels like it was written by two different people, with control of the series changing hands about halfway through. During the first half of the series the crew of the Archangel goes through an almost blow-by-blow retelling of the story of the original Gundam, but with ZAFT instead of Zeon and Kira Yamato instead of Amuro Ray. That could be overlooked, but there's another, larger, problem: The first half of SEED is painfully slow, largely the fault of horrible writing. Director Fukuda must love the use of flashbacks, because there's a number of them in most episodes. These aren't just a couple of lines, though: some of them go on for entire minutes. To make matters worse, many of them are repeated multiple times in individual episodes, giving the series a very heavyhanded feel. We GOT it, already. Move on and show us something NEW. A character's death is supposed to have emotional meaning - but when the entire scene is replayed multiple times in the following episode, it's all lost. Either the writers thought we wouldn't notice that they're just spitting out flashbacks instead of moving the story forward, or they thought that our memories are so bad that we need to be constantly reminded of events that happened in the previous episode. Neither assumption is true. What we're left with instead is a story that moves at a glacial pace, containing entire episodes in which almost nothing new is said.
The series finally hits its stride about halfway through (starting with episode 28 - 26 and 27 are almost entirely flashbacks); the flashbacks are toned down considerably, and the series starts moving forward as the hostilities between ZAFT and the EA escalate out of control. Unfortunately, the second half suffers due to having wasted the first; rather than feeling slow, the second half feels like it has to rush ahead far too quickly to compensate. Characters make a big deal out of unexpected revelations that we know were intended to be important, but that don't really affect the story at all as it's written. Characters undergo dramatic shifts in personality or maturity with little warning - but the actual development of said characters falls by the wayside. Major characters are killed for no reason beyond the fact that the script called for their death.
The development of the Archangel's crew is largely weak and disorganized. Kira is the standard whiny pilot that Gundam fans have come to expect. Mu is the voice of experience. Murrue is the captain who's too nice to command effectively (and who never does anything unless Mu suggests it first...) Natarle is the rigid military type. Miriallia is the nice, "normal" technician character. Fllay is cast as a manipulative villain in the first half, then vanishes without trace for much of the second. Cagalli, seemingly strong and capable at first, frustrated me by spending most of the remaining series yelling and crying. Of the characters, only Mu, Natarle, and Miriallia come across as being done particularly well.
That's not to say it's all bad. The ZAFT cast is executed far more effectively - particularly Athrun and Dearka, who are two of the only characters in the series who don't feel contrived in any way. The internal turmoil in Athrun's mind as agonizes over his battles with Kira is very well done. Rau le Creuset, the resident masked ace, manages NOT to be just another Char Aznable clone (a la Gundam Wing's Zechs) and is an effective villain, although he is also rushed.
The animation is fluid and the art is attractively rendered (and the disco guns are gone, Cartoon Network viewers). Although I don't much like CG animation in anime, here it's pulled off well enough that I never really noticed. The frequent fight scenes, unlike the story, are fast-paced and well choreographed. The only downturn is the appearance of the overpowered Freedom and Justice Gundams, which turn most battles into Gundam Wing-style "fire big guns and destroy an entire army in one shot!" affairs.
So. Is SEED better than the UC series? By and large, no. Is it better than Gundam Wing? Definitely. I did enjoy watching the series - but it could've been incredible, on par with the best of UC, if only the writing was better. As it is, if I decide to buy the series I'll hold out for the box set instead of picking up individual DVDs. Hopefully the sequel, SEED Destiny, will learn from the mistakes of its predecessor.
Rating: 
Summary: EXTRAORDINAIRE
Review: Cette serie est vraiment excellente.Je suis devenu un fan tres rapidement et jai ecouter la serie complete en environ une semaine.Un must pour tout les fans de sci-fiction et les fans d'anime.ATTENTION: Peut créer une dépendance!!!
Rating:
Summary: I love it! The Best Gundam Series Followup
Review: Gundam Seed is very much in the spirit of gundam wing and it is magnificent! All the earmarks of the main characters and how they came about in gundam wing, its beautiful and the music is the best to match! It get's my heart pumping when the show starts, the only show i wanna truely see on saturday lineup on cartoon network. Call it a hook,line and sinker for me. If you find a kira yamato doll let me know, i'll be hugging it all day :-) (Kira all to myself, yes im wierd.)
I am interested to know how and when they did the engineering on humans. I hope it comes up in gundam seed or another series of gundam.
Rating:
Summary: A great start to a great series!
Review: I have seen the entire series around the time it originally came out in Japan and it is one of the most enthralling anime adventures I have watched. At first I thought it was nothing more than the usual Gundam fare but as the episodes progressed the story became so deep, the characters were developed with a sense of reality, and the action made sense and not just combat for the sake of combat. After the last episode I was anxious for this series to be released on dvd. Finally I read that it began airing on Cartoon Network (which I've never seen so I can't comment on the English dubbing) as well as this upcoming dvd release. It's drama and action at it's best. I highly recommend this to any anime fan or as an awesome series to start getting into the genre. This is the first series I recommend to others when discussing anime. Pick up this dvd and then stick with the series. In the end you won't be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: A great start to a great series!
Review: I have seen the entire series around the time it originally came out in Japan and it is one of the most enthralling anime adventures I have watched. At first I thought it was nothing more than the usual Gundam fare but as the episodes progressed the story became so deep, the characters were developed with a sense of reality, and the action made sense and not just combat for the sake of combat. After the last episode I was anxious for this series to be released on dvd. Finally I read that it began airing on Cartoon Network (which I've never seen so I can't comment on the English dubbing) as well as this upcoming dvd release. It's drama and action at it's best. I highly recommend this to any anime fan or as an awesome series to start getting into the genre. This is the first series I recommend to others when discussing anime. Pick up this dvd and then stick with the series. In the end you won't be sorry.
Rating: 
Summary: BOYS AND GIRLS AND MECHA
Review: I'll admit right off the bat that while I've been aware of the Gundum phenom this is the first Gundum anime I've ever seen. Unfortunately, I tried reading the Del Rey manga adaptation which came out some months before the anime and was completely lost. You couldn't tell who was who and even the difference between the boys and the girls. So I didn't have a good attitude coming into the viewing of this anime. After initial trepidation, I completely enjoyed Volume 1 of Gundum Seed.
In the future humanity has split into two factions. The first are the genetically modified Coordinators, who are superior to humans in every way. The majority of humans have not had these modifications and proudly call themselves the "Naturals" as though the Coordinators are some freakish abominations. A war starts (the anime isn't clear who starts it) due to the misunderstandings and suspicions between the two factions. Both sides field military armies, with the Earth Alliance representing the Naturals and ZAFT representing the space colonies of the Coordinators.
Not everybody has taken a side in the war. The nation of Aube and its research satellite colony named Heliopolis have declared neutrality in the hostilities. Known or unknown to the inhabitants, the Earth Alliance has been manufacturing 5 Mobile Suit G-weapons, humanoid-looking mecha piloted by humans, which are far in advance of even ZAFT's superior technology. Thus, Heliopolis is a target for a ZAFT raid to capture the new secret weapons.
Caught in the middle of this are two friends on opposite sides who are both opposed to the war in spirit, if not in reality. Kira Yamato, a young college student, finds himself as the reluctant pilot of one of the G-weapons as all its trained pilots are killed. He chooses not to fight for the Earth Alliance, but to guard the lives of his friends, and of his home. On the Coordinator side, his good friend from times past, Athrun, is one of the team sent in to hijack the new Gundum suits. You'll have to get the dvd to find out what happens when the two meet up again. They'll have to make some tough choices.
I was initially put off by the character designs in this anime. They just seemed a tad too Final Fantasy effeminate to me, what with all the wind through the hair blowing shots. Also, the animation itself seemed a little stiff and did not flow very smoothly. But I guess my eye adjusted to it because I didn't notice it after a while. The show doesn't really start until the first battle and then you start to see the brutality of war. This is not a touchy feely anime. Hundreds of people are killed in explosions as the Gundum have their own battles. The action sequences are very hard-hitting, not because they are graphic (you hardly see any blood), but there's all these massive explosions where a second before people were standing horrified and not knowing what to do. The Coordinators seem especially unconcerned about the death of civilians but there are allusions to an Earth Alliance atrocity known as "The Bloody Valentine" which seem to give them justification. I really enjoyed the characters once I got used to them. I was kinda put off by all the ponderous history of Gundum but I enjoyed this volume and will probably seek out the other countless series and manga.
Rating:
Summary: Where it all begins again.
Review: In the tradition of previous "Alternate Universe" Gundam sagas like Gundam Wing, Gundam SEED has takes place in its own world, connected only thematically to the many other series. Fans of the original Gundam will no doubt experience some deja vu as a silver-masked man leads a raid on a colony where Earth's prototype mobile suits are being built, and most of the crew of a distinctive white battleship are killed, leaving junior officers and civilians to take command. But SEED is not a mere rehash, it has its own twists on the old formula.
This time, the war is between the genetically-modified "Coordinators" of ZAFT and Earth Alliance, dominated by un-modified "Naturals". Like Zeon in the original series, ZAFT is heavily outnumbered but make up the difference with their revolutionary mobile suits, which are far superior to Earth's mobile armors (unlike the mighty behemoths of previous series, SEED's "mobile armors" are merely small fighter craft). In response, Earth forces secretly develop advanced mobile suits on the supposedly neutral colony Heliopolis. But ZAFT discovers their effort, and masked ace Rau Le Creuset leads his team on a bold mission to steal the Gundams. While attempting to escape the attack, young student Kira Yamato (a Coordinator who's not part of ZAFT) and the mysterious Cagalli stumble into the mobile suit hanger. Kira unwittingly finds himself in the cockpit of the Strike Gundam, and discovers that the ZAFT pilot who stole one of the others, the Aegis Gundam, is his childhood friend Athrun Zala. Meanwhile, Rau is attacked by mobile armor ace Mwu La Flaga, who he has apparently fought many times before. And soon, the battle between Kira and the ZAFT forces results in the complete destruction of Heliopolis. Kira and his friends join with Mwu and the few remaining crew members of the battleship Archangel, attempting to evade Rau's fleet and escape to Earth.
Rating:
Summary: The Beginning of what is becoming a Gundam epic
Review: Not too long ago, The First few episodes of the newest Gundam series, Gundam Seed, aired on Toonami. Theese episodes, though they resembled the original Mobile Suit Gundam, they still were still visually stunning. The story of theese first couple of episodes are thus: A boy named Kira Yamato has been forced to comondeer a prototype weapon called a the Strike GUNDAM or
General Unillateral Neurallink Dispersive Automated Machine.
The Strike Gundam was one of 5 prototypes, 4 of which were stolen by a geneticly enhanced human race called Coordinators and the orginization ZAFT. Now, Kira, who is also a Cooridinator has been forced in a fierce battle against a former friend, and the Elite ZAFT Corp, Leaded by Rau Le Creuset. The Episodes that are most likely to be in this DVD are as follows: 1: A False Peace
2: Its Name Is Gundam
3: Collapsing Homeland
4: Silent Run
5: Phase Shift Down
6: The Disappearing Gundam. This DVD is worth your money, but only if you like anime, or sci fi. If you aren't, you'll just get bored.
Rating:
Summary: BEST GUNDAM SERIES EVER!
Review: One word: awesome. Combine complex, interactive character design; a deep, storyline that holds itself together without becomeing overly dramatic, and the excellent voice talents of not only the wonderful Japanese track, but from Ocean Studios as well. If you have only seen this show for as-is on Cartoon Network, you haven't really seen it. So much was deleted and made "kiddie safe" on the CN version that some storyline was lost and some lines came off as cheesy.
In addition to the plot, script and characters, the animation is superb. It's really cool! The animators not only pay attention the detailed mecha, but to the landscape and characters themselves. (My fave parts are the priceless facial expressions!) Despite having a very "bishonen" and "bishojo" look (not that that's a bad thing), and having strangly thin, "twiggish" looks, the character animation is also some of the best I've seen out there, rivaling both Inuyasha, Gundam Wing and Rurouni Kenshin animation.
Awesome! A must see! (It's better to buy via internet, because at DVD/CD technology stores, GSEED is highly priced. Eep!)
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