KIDOU SENSHI GUNDAM SEED FREEDOM

DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME ActionKidou Senshi Gundam SEED DESTINY
OVA ActionKidou Senshi Gundam SEED DESTINY FINAL PLUS: Erabareta Mirai
Not Available ActionKidou Senshi Gundam SEED FREEDOM ZERO
NOVEL ActionKidou Senshi Gundam SEED FREEDOM

REVIEWS

• 

  VIkari

  75/100
  My experience with Seed Freedom.

  I've been a Gundam fan for a long time now, it has been a part of my life since some years, I would (and still do) spend hours and hours thinking about the franchise, the shows I liked, the ones I disliked, how much I adored and agreed with certain characters, etc.

  I love Seed, it was my second AU, and it's still one of my favorites even today. When Freedom was announced, I was crazy hyped, it was something amazing to wait for, the grand finale, the end of a rich and well-written story, filled with great characters, amazing action, relatable and well-written politics/philosophy, etc. When it released, I ended up not watching it, not because I wasn't interested in it anymore, it was because I got lazy and shelved it, like I did with the whole franchise. I decided to leave Gundam for a while, to seek new franchises and try to expand my knowledge on mecha and anime beyond Gundam. And well, Solomon, I have returned, and it's time to talk about Seed Freedom, the movie I was waiting for for quite a while.

  We start the movie in action, it already showcases the level and quality the animation will be. The CGI MS look wonderful, the ships, the effects, everything is amazing. You can see the budget, the love and care, everything poured in to make a spectacle, and boy, it sure lives up to be one. Visually speaking, Freedom has one of the best productions in the franchise. It takes all the elements from the previous entries and enhances the quality by 10 times. I've already mentioned the CGI, but not the sound design and mecha design, both of which are spectacular. We have new suits, some done by new Mecha Designers, some by old ones, still, they all end up blending well and working perfectly in the narrative.

  However, on that same note, I feel like the characters leave a lot to be desired visually. It isn't ugly—Seed won't EVER be ugly—Hisashi Hirai is amazing and talented, but... I don't know, the changes, or maybe the modern look, the weird lipsticks... I feel like they don't look as pleasant as the HD remasters did. Though, it's probably just because I was too attached to them, because around the late half of the film, I was barely thinking about that anymore.

  Now, the real part... The story.

  First things first, Seed Freedom IS NOT CCA, for better or for worse. It doesn't even try or want to be, so if you go in wanting that, there is a BIG chance you’ll feel highly disappointed. Lucky for me, I don't like CCA (Hot take, I know, might as well do a review about it someday and explain myself) and had no expectations for it to be. Rather, I was afraid it would try to be a new CCA. Oddly enough, it had a similar effect of boosting the franchise and selling an insane amount.

  Seed Freedom is nothing more than an epilogue of Destiny—of the message, of the characters, of everything. You will feel that early on; the dilemmas are the same, the ideas, everything. The story spins around the Destiny Plan and the end of Seed Destiny. Durandal's ideals lived on, and the story is mostly about that: the journey to oppose this group called Foundation, which is trying to impose those ideals by force, causing chaos among factions to usurp the situation and take control of things.

  That being said, the Foundation is a terrible group—not in the sense of being bad people (which they are), but in the sense of being so weirdly written. They only exist for the sake of propagating the story's message (which I will soon talk about) and to make the story flow properly. The thing is, they are boring, uninteresting, and don't have 1% of the charisma Durandal had. The members are exaggerated (common for Seed) to feel evil and talented, but in reality, they are just background characters with little to no development, just there to show how good the main pilots are. The leader of the group, Orphee, is the worst antagonist of Seed. He is so weird and uninteresting; they try to make you hate him, but you will most likely just not care about him, because his motivations aren't well-written enough to hook you. They are just there to prove the point of Kira and Lacus.

  The message of the story is basically that love isn't something forced—it's something built, something born from desire, care, and freedom. Conflict isn't a result of it, and the lack of it takes away the reason for life. Living isn't something that has to have a meaning; you just live because you want to. It's a pretty message, and I summarized it really badly. It's something you should see for yourself and interpret however you want, but that's a short version of what I thought of it.

  In the end, true love prevails. If they have to find a way to end conflict, it isn't by taking everyone's desires and freedom—it's by trying to understand each other and relying on each other, seeking new dialogues and ideas. As long as there is desire and love, there is hope and freedom.

  The old characters are pretty good. Shinn has become some sort of comedic relief in the story, and it works really well—and also makes me happy for him. My favorite character, freed from that cycle of anger to become a happy boy... he deserves that. It was a great development for him. As for Athrun, he is the same as always—the right arm and the one who puts sense into Kira's troubled head. He is always fun to watch, and his Z'gok was nothing but peak. Kira was also great; I liked his arc—his fear and tiredness from this repeating chain of events, these never-ending wars, which have plagued him since he was 14. It's cool to see him rising up after all of that, and a good contrast to the conformist Amuro, who just accepts everything. Luna was fun—nothing really different, but fun. However, Agnes, the new character, was straight-up bad. She really feels like a Gundam character and reminds me a lot of Reccoa from Zeta, but worse and really unnecessary. Agnes is a character that has no meaning or reason to be in the narrative; she has no meaning or reason to exist, none at all. And Lacus was okay, the story tries to make you dislike her, but it doesn't work really well, because you already know the character and how she is.

  The story has many fun and hype moments—some that will get you on your toes, some that will make you laugh a lot. Overall, it's a really fun movie to watch. It has some bad and annoying things (Foundation), but the hype moments and fun characters manage to overcome that. It's not as deep and well-written as Destiny, but it's still a great movie.

  Now, listen to this peak!!
  Continue on AniList
• 

  DelphinusSetaceous

  15/100
  20 Years For this is painful.

  Not the Biggest Gundam Nerd, but Seed Was the First Time I Cried My Eyes Out at a Anime.
  However, This Made Cry Not From Joy, Not From Sadness but Anger.
  This is Basically the Result of Someone at Sunrise Looking Back
  At the Money Making Machine That Was C.e and Thinking
  "How Do I Bring Back This Thing That is Considered a Laughing Stock
  By Many and Beloved by Others? By Making It a Self Aware
  Laughing Stock So Both of the Two Will Buy Tickets for It!"
  The Whole Movie is Supposed to Be One Big Fan Service,
  However None of Them Brought a Smile Into My Face,
  Which Destiny, Despite How Much of Them Were Absolute
  Bullshit, Was Able to Make
  Me Smirk, Such as When Neo Became Mu Again.

  story
  Renmants of Blue Cosmos
  (Who Should Have Been the Main Antagonists of the
  Movie) Are Still Around and Doing Shit.
  Kira and Lacus Go to a Emerging Nation That Feels Even More
  Out of Place Than Anything in Astray (Except Astray is Acutally Awesome)
  Mr. Steal-your-girl Gets Geassed and Everything Goes to Hell,
  Including but Not Limited to the Obligatory Ce Nuking Event,
  The Archangel Finally Having Its Wings Ripped Away and
  Getting His Own Girl Stolen.
  First Half Genuinely Felt Like Torture to Watch,
  With the Second Being Almost Ok.
  characters

  Agnes:

  All of the New Antagonists on the Movie Feel Like Parodies
  Of Self-ship Ocs Some Girl on Ao3 Makes for a Shitty Fanfic,
  However This One Has to Be the Worst of Them All.
  When She First Appeared in the Attack to Blue Cosmos
  I Genuinely Thought Meyrin Became a Pilot and Became
  A Pick-me-girl, Only to Find Out She Was Some Completely Random
  Character Whose Sole Purpose is to Betray the Group.
  Not Only is Her Punishment Far Too Low but is Also Made
  To Increase the Ntr-bait Count in the Movie, Which
  Was Already One of the Weirdest Parts of the Cosmic Era but
  This Whole Movie Seems to Be a Mad Parody of It
  Made to Focus on That.

  Black Knights:

  Someone Watched Cglotl and Thought It Would Be Funny
  If That Name Referred to the British Instead.
  They Are the Boosted Men of the Movie,
  With the Right of Having Another Not-yzak and a Dude With
  A Bane Mask.

  Foundation:
  What if Instead of Your Average Racist Guy, Racist Guy 2, Nihilistic
  Char and Eugenicist President We Made the Main Antagonists
  A Incel Womanizer Who is
  Doing All This for Pussy, the
  Obligatory Old Hag With the Body of a Child,
  And They Were Literally Just Trying to Continue the Previous
  Bad Guy's Plans?
  Anyways Despite How Much Cheesier Than This Already Very
  Cheesy Movie I Believe the "20 Clones of Kira" Original Script
  Was Still a Better Idea.

  Returning Characters:

  Shinn Was Fine but I Wish There Was More Tension Between Him
  And Kira While Still Showing Hes No Longer a Whiny Crybaby
  Trying to Sound Smart, Cagalli Didn't Do Shit at All (Already
  Knew When
  They Mentioned She Was Going to Get the Strike Rouge Ready
  Instead of Using the Damn Butter Colored Robot
  Her Father Bulit Specifically for Her Nation's Defense
  But Insists on Making the Guy Who Was Brainwashed to
  Become a War Criminal Up Until Recently Pilot It),
  Was Wondering Where the Heck Athrun Was in the Whole First
  Half, and Hilda Becoming a Acutal Character Was the Best Decision
  They Made for This.

  Mobile Suits:

  While the MSs of the Black Knights Undeniably Follow the Golden
  Rule of "Cool", They Don't Feel Right in the Setting at All
  (but Then Again Their Whole Existence Doesn't).
  I Disliked the Rising Freedom at First but Its Design Grew on Me,
  Sadly It Gets Replaced With the Strike Freedom After Getting Its
  Ass Wrecked, Which Despite Being Cooler Doesn't Have the Benefit
  Of Turning Into a Cool Plane :(
  Mighty Strike Freedom Genuinely Looked Like a
  Absolute Beauty With Its PROUD DEFENDA
  That Looks Like the Back of a Holy Spirit Pigeon Statue
  You Would See at a Church (Im Pretty Sure Bandai is Aware
  Of Kira "Jesus" Yamato at This Point), Unfortunately With Its
  Last Minute
  Inclusion That is Basically a
  "Final Boss Finishing Move in a JRPG" and Its Janky Movements (That
  Thing Genuinely Was Bulit Just to "Aura Farm" but Then Again the Whole
  Film is) Shows How Much This Movie Feels Like a Gunpla Ad.
  Everything Else Was Forgetable With the Exception of the Damn Z'gok.

  Ending:
  The Moment Some Weird Insert
  Song Started Playing and Japanese Words in the Corner
  Appeared I Know It Was Over, Because It in Fact Was.
  If You Felt Disappointed With Destiny's Original Extremely Abrupt
  Ending That Was Reworked in the Remaster, Then Prepare for a
  Wave of Nostalgia.
  Final Thoughts:

  As a Die-hard Fanboy of CE
  (Because I Didn't Watch Any Other Timeline Yet, I Don't
  Binge a Whole Franchise in One Year)
  I Would Say if You Feel Satisfied With Destiny's Ending, Then You
  Got No Reason to Watch This.
  If You Didn't Like Destiny's Ending, Well, Even Less of a Reason.
  If You Do in Fact Want to See This, Expect a Two Hour Long
  Special Episode Written as a "Thank You for Being the Ones That Didn't
  Dislike This" and Not Anything Worthy of Your Time.
  If You Would Like to Watch Something Thats Acutally Worthy of Being
  Called "Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: The One Movie
  Thats Not a Recap of the Series"
  Then Watch All of C.E 73: Stargazer, That One Definitively Needs
  Your Attention.

  Continue on AniList

SIMILAR ANIMES YOU MAY LIKE

• ANIME

  ActionCross Ange: Tenshi to Ryuu no Rondo
• ANIME

  ActionGEAR Senshi Dendoh
• OVA

  DramaShin Seiki GPX Cyber Formula SAGA
• OVA

  DramaShin Seiki GPX Cyber Formula SIN
• MOVIE

  DramaKidou Senshi Gundam: Gyakushuu no Char
• MOVIE

  ActionKidou Senshi Gundam 00: A wakening of the Trailblazer
• ANIME

  ActionKidou Senshi Gundam SEED
• MOVIE

  DramaSoukyuu no Fafner: Dead Aggressor - Heaven and Earth
• MOVIE

  DramaSoukyuu no Fafner: Dead Aggressor - THE BEYOND
• ANIME

  ActionYuuki Bakuhatsu Bang Bravern
• MOVIE

  ActionShin Kidou Senki Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz Tokubetsu-hen
• MOVIE

  DramaSoukyuu no Fafner: Dead Aggressor - THE BEYOND Part 4