Sup,First aired in 2005, 'Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Destiny' is the follow on series to the hugely popular, and truly awesome, 'Gundam: Seed'. It's not very good. It's what Joey was to Friends.
Now, before I go and completely trash this series I want to point out that I've sat through this 50 episode horror three times. The first time was back when it was released in 2004 when the fan subbed versions started hitting the internet. Back in 2004 I was hammered all the time but I seem to remember the series being pretty good, but maybe this was because I was hammered every day. My second outing with Destiny came a few years later when I bought a cheep fan subbed version from ebay. I was sober throughout. It wasn't quite what I remembered. At all. It was, in fact quite bad. And since then I've never really wanted to return to it.
Since my second date with Destiny my Gundam collection has grown considerably. It's always annoyed that I never got round to buying myself an official copy of Destiny, so the other week I spent a stupid amount of money on the Destiny box sets, parts one and two. This is the first time I've ever regretted buying something before I've left the shop. But never the less, my collection is nearing completion. All that remains is Igloo 2 and Gundam00 when it hits English shores.In a previous post I remarked about the state of the FMA box sets and how freaking awesome they are and how Funimation went all out to make sure your money was well spent. Unfortunately I can't say the same for Beez Entertainment and the Destiny box sets.
Both boxes are pretty hefty things. Each contain five dvd's with five episodes each. Now, I've never had a box set quite like these. Every other box set I've ever had has either been a type of slip case that either covers the dvd case, or leaves the spine of the box showing, or it's been a box that unfolds on itself. The Destiny dvd box is like a little house. It's a box with a door, and a pretty feeble door at that. And the box is far too big for the dvd's, there's room for a book or episode guide or something but no. Nothing, just wasted space.
When I first saw the box in the shop a 'flyer' type thing in the shrink wrap says:DVD Box Content -
- 5 DVD's with slipcases
- Detailed Characters and Mecha Files
- Textless opening and ending
- Beez Trailers
But anyways, on to the series itself. I've been making notes throughout this third viewing. Here we go...
Set in C.E.73, Destiny picks up two years after the events of Gundam Seed. Episode one begins during the battle for Orb from 'Seed'. The Freedom Gundam is taking a part in this battle. We see the Freedom fire a shot which causes an explosion on a nearby hillside. On the hill, Shinn Asuka is fleeing the fight with his family. Stopping to fetch his sisters mobile phone, Shinn gets blown down the hill. His family are caught in the blast and die. He joins the military and becomes the pilot of the Impulse Gundam.
Two years later, Athrun, going under a stupid alias Alex Dino, and Cagalli as the representative of Orb are visiting Armoury One to meet with the Zaft forces chairman Durindal. Three 'extended', the Destiny equivalent of a cyber newtype, infiltrate the armoury and steel Zaft's three new Gundam units, the Giah, Chaos, and Abyss. Shinn jumps into the Impulse and bam, thats episode one in a nut shell. A promising first episode.
I don't really know where to start with this because there are so many points I want to cover but I guess I'll start with the mecha designs. The mecha in Destiny look really poor. Now, you can disagree with me if you want, but the Impulse and Destiny Gundam's hurts my eyes when I look at them. I mean, Impulse looks like a clown with all its changing colours, and Destiny looks like a really colourful bird. They just look silly. The Legend is the Providence, Strike-freedom is the Freedom with a bit of gold paint here and there. As for Athrun's mobile suit, the Infinite Justice, well they gave up designing that when they drew up the Aegis in Gundam Seed. I'm being quite serious, if you look at all Athrun's mobile suits from the start of Seed, them being the Aegis, Justice, Savior and finally the infinite Justice, they all look pretty much the same. And don't even get me started on the pink Zaku... Eugh...MAQH has a full list of the Destiny mecha designs.
The only decent designs in the whole show are the suits that made cameo appearances from the original U.C. series, the Zaku, Gouf, and the Dom. In fact, the Gouf Ignited was probably the best design in the entire of the show. I really liked that suit.
The Gouf IgnitedOne of the main things that annoyed me in this series is the amount of flashbacks used. Now, I'm more than happy for a flashback to be used if it's needed but holy hell, I've never seen so many flashbacks used in one series. I mean, in the episode where Stella dies I remember there being two flashbacks to things that had happened in that episode. I must of seen Cagalli's father burn to death at least ten times, and that happened in Seed, not Destiny. Really, I'm not stupid, and it's insulting to the viewer to have so many flashbacks. The whole show could easily have been cut by at least five episodes if they'd taken out all the pointless flashbacks.
And while I'm on about cutting down a few episodes, lets talk about stock footage. Stock footage, in my book, is footage that is used over and over to save time on animation and production. For example say, in Scooby Doo when the gang is always running down that same hallway every episode. Well, Destiny has stock footage, and they really over used it. For most of the show I felt like I was watching the same battle over and over, and I was more than sick of seeing the Impulse's launching sequence. Like every time the bloody thing launched. Core splendor, chest piece, leg piece... every time. In say, Victory Gundam, or Double Zeta, the transforming units let you sit through the same sequence a few times, but then they'd stop showing it to you, because you know what its going to do. And if they did need to show it you again, they'd never use the same stock footage.
And when did all the characters turn into whimps? At the end of Seed, Cagalli was kicking some serious ass in the Rouge. What, just because she's the representative of a nation she has to turn into a whimp? In nearly every scene she appeared in she was either being pushed around or she was crying. Captain Ramius seemed to be lacking her spine and the whole story between her and Mu just got stupid. MU DIED OK!! THE MAN DIED IN AN EXPLODING STRIKE GUNDAM!! (yeah, ok they went back and fixed the ending so it appears he survived, but instead of doing that, they should of just gotten some better writers for Destiny).
Cagalli about to whimp out
I don't know, this series has so much wrong with it. The dubbing in places is just awful and Arthur's stereotypical British accent pissed me right off. Every other episode seems to be a recap of something that happened the episode before, the characters never really seem to 'get going' and two of my favorite characters from Seed are barely even mentioned. What happened to you Yzak? Where were you Dearka? I constantly felt like the series was trying to pad itself out. Just putting on a fancy light show to detract from the fact that this series was quickly made to please the fans. It was like, all the things that were awesome in Seed, got way too over done in Destiny and because of that it made the show fall flat on its ass. Of course, the fact that the show had a shit story and it was constantly borrowing the good bits from other Gundam series (E.g. Shinn and Stella is for Destiny what Kamille and Four is to Zeta) didn't help it either. For me the plot was constantly darting all over the place, and I never really got a feel for who the main protagonist was ment to be. It's all over the place.
@SoulBroRyu, of MAHQ.net has this to say on Destiny:
And while I'm on about cutting down a few episodes, lets talk about stock footage. Stock footage, in my book, is footage that is used over and over to save time on animation and production. For example say, in Scooby Doo when the gang is always running down that same hallway every episode. Well, Destiny has stock footage, and they really over used it. For most of the show I felt like I was watching the same battle over and over, and I was more than sick of seeing the Impulse's launching sequence. Like every time the bloody thing launched. Core splendor, chest piece, leg piece... every time. In say, Victory Gundam, or Double Zeta, the transforming units let you sit through the same sequence a few times, but then they'd stop showing it to you, because you know what its going to do. And if they did need to show it you again, they'd never use the same stock footage.
And when did all the characters turn into whimps? At the end of Seed, Cagalli was kicking some serious ass in the Rouge. What, just because she's the representative of a nation she has to turn into a whimp? In nearly every scene she appeared in she was either being pushed around or she was crying. Captain Ramius seemed to be lacking her spine and the whole story between her and Mu just got stupid. MU DIED OK!! THE MAN DIED IN AN EXPLODING STRIKE GUNDAM!! (yeah, ok they went back and fixed the ending so it appears he survived, but instead of doing that, they should of just gotten some better writers for Destiny).
Cagalli about to whimp outI don't know, this series has so much wrong with it. The dubbing in places is just awful and Arthur's stereotypical British accent pissed me right off. Every other episode seems to be a recap of something that happened the episode before, the characters never really seem to 'get going' and two of my favorite characters from Seed are barely even mentioned. What happened to you Yzak? Where were you Dearka? I constantly felt like the series was trying to pad itself out. Just putting on a fancy light show to detract from the fact that this series was quickly made to please the fans. It was like, all the things that were awesome in Seed, got way too over done in Destiny and because of that it made the show fall flat on its ass. Of course, the fact that the show had a shit story and it was constantly borrowing the good bits from other Gundam series (E.g. Shinn and Stella is for Destiny what Kamille and Four is to Zeta) didn't help it either. For me the plot was constantly darting all over the place, and I never really got a feel for who the main protagonist was ment to be. It's all over the place.
@SoulBroRyu, of MAHQ.net has this to say on Destiny:
"Gundam SEED Destiny is to Gundam SEED as Tranformers: Revenge of the Fallen is to Transformers. So much potential. So much disappointment."
To be honest, Destiny has a promising start but if you're a Gundam hardcore then no, watch it once then just leave it be. Put it to one side and walk away.
@BenGP02
