Seven

Although it is probably going to be a popcorn movie, having a decent story and dialogue definitely never hurt any movie. I'm betting that this will somehow end up as an excuse for having Will Smith spout off "witty" one-liners, bigass explosions, and to top it off, a kid-friendly rap tune by none other than Will Smith during the credits!

If there's one thing that I don't like about Gundam Seed and Destiny, it's the capital ships. I've always thought the Archangel or any other capital ship from EA or Zaft looks like complete crap when compared to the Albion, Ra Kailum, Gwanban, or even the Crossbone Vanguard ships. The Minerva looks decent but still poor in my book compared to UC ships. They should just bring in the guy that did any of the Macross ships since I believe he also had a hand in designing the ships for Legend of the Galactic Heroes. A capital ship should look epic and intimidating, not cartoony. Even that big ass capital ship that Zaft had (I think it was called Gondwonland) looked like a big grey block of wood... it had no character.

Does anyone know if they will be play the "Duel of Fates" song during Vader and Obiwan's last fight? I remember waaaay back when Phantom Menace was about to come out that Lucas said that the "Duel of Fates" which they play during the fight with Maul will be a recurring theme that will figure greatly with the duel between Vader and Obiwan in Episode III, which he hadn't even named yet.

It's definitely heavy into the film noir feel, with the stylized dialogue and long monologues. I can expect a good 90% of the public that watches this movie will just plain not get it. It's their loss.

I've never seen all of Turn A. What was the Moonlight Butterfly and what could it do as a weapon? And did the Turn A really have a "shining finger" attack?

Sure it's small but in terms of technology and scientific know-how they at least on the same level of the Alliance. Look at the upgraded Gold Frame, you do not want to screw with that unit and it's upgrades were carried out by Orb. In the last war the Izumo-class was second only to the Archangel-class. Sure Lowe had his computer helping him, but he was still a Natural piloting a mobile suit long before the Alliance got their Daggers rolling out and Kira creating the OS for Orb. What the Alliance wants is their technological ability, not nessesarily their military capability. I'm thinking that Orb is basically an analog for modern Japan as envisioned by the director. Or maybe I'm reading into things too much...

Poor Heine. That death was just as bad as when Nicol went down, maybe even worse. What was the point of Dulindall assigning Heine to the Minerva in the first place? You already had Athrun as the MS team leader and member of FAITH on board along with the Captain. I'd care more about Heine if they didn't kill the guy off so damn fast after introducing him.

Just saw episode 23 as well. Man, the way they keep building up Kira and Freedom, he almost comes across as a Max Jenius style pacifist Amuro Rey in a more powerful Nu Gundam. Everytime Kira is on screen with the Freedom, its like he has no peer on the battlefield, and the Freedom is also being built up as the ultimate mobile suit. I'm under the opinion he'd probably be able to take out Athrun. I like how Shinn didn't even know what the hell hit him when Kira stepped to him. I'm really starting to get bored with Cagalli. I didn't really care for her much in Seed, and in Destiny, she's getting really annoying with her constant whining and angst over Orb and what not. You don't want anyone to fight, we get it, stop ramming it down our throats already.

That's a good point, it could be that the three EAF pilots all pilot this Gundam as a team. Although, speaking for myself, I have a feeling that Stellar will end up piloting it since so far Destiny has pulled quite a few "homages" to character and plot points from Zeta, and in her case, her story feels a lot like Four Murasame/Rosamia's stories in Zeta. Four, Rosamia, and Stellar are all similar in that they are inherently sweet girls that end up being twisted by the army's use of experimental technology to make them into ruthless soldiers. Four and Stellar are also similar in that they both meet the respective main characters on the opposite side (Camille and Shinn) while in civilian dress around town. This chance encounter sparks off a relationship that in Stellar's case will probably end in tragedy, just like Four. Then you have both Four and Rosamia piloting oversized black Gundams. It's only a guess, but I can see Stellar heading down the same path.

So that's the evil Gundam model that Shin and Kira are shown flying towards in the opening animation. Wow, another Zeta reference! That Gundam is really reminiscent of the Psycho Gundam with a bit of the Quin Mantha thrown in. How much do you want to bet that Stellar ends up piloting it? I can't see Neo in it since I have a feeling he'll end up being revealed as Mwu.

Those are some awesome images! I've never even seen the Cosmo Attackers in action before. So are these conceptual storyboards or something like that that never made it into the actual productions?

Anyone notice how Destiny has much much less angst so far than Seed? By this time in Seed, I think you were already exposed to Kira coming to grips with being a Coordinator and not fitting in with his friends, along with the trauma of killing people in battle. Heap that on top of Fllay's torment about her father and Coordinators, Tolle and Nicol, and a whole lot of other stuff, it sure made Seed seem alot more angsty than Destiny. So far, Destiny doesn't have much of that or maybe it's going to crop up near the end. There's definitely more comedy in Destiny, mostly with Athrun and all the women on his jock. Sadly, it looks like Athrun gets all the fun and Kira's being portrayed as a sad sack that mopes all the time. You can't blame the guy, when his last piece of action was with Fllay, given that Lacus loves toting around a whole damn preschool class!

So a more realistic depiction of decompression would be what happened to Tim Robbins in Mission to Mars, as opposed to Arnold's eyes popping out of his head like a fiddler crab. I had to admit that scene in Mission to Mars was pretty damn graphic and looked fairly believable with his head freezing instantly.

It's got the Zeta color scheme going on with the red and black wings. They sure are cramming in as much references to Zeta as possible. I wonder when we'll see the gold Murasame in action?

Sounds like a bad idea, but that's all it sounds like... an idea on a website. They need to just let it go and pull a Battlestar Galactica with it in 15 years. Bring it back when people actually start missing it. I never thought the original Star Trek really had such a dramatic and meaningful heart to it like a lot of Trekkies like to claim it had. I never thought it was deserving of the self importance that alot of Trekkies gave it, claiming that it it has to do with man's drive to explore and learn and evolve. I just thought of it as another campy sci-fi show that got lucky. For what it's worth, I'm grateful for the entertainment that they put on for me to watch through my childhood. But it still needs to go away.

Man, that kid really is growing up to look just like the actor that played Jango in Episode 2. Lucas' casting guy deserves a gold medal for having the foresight to see similarities in someone so young.

Now that was one HELL of a trailer! Usually I'm not one to go apeshit over a trailer or Star Wars, but I can recognize when it looks like a lot of great stuff is in store. Hell, even if what we saw was all the good points of the movie, I'll still be satisfied. I go to see Star Wars cause its a popcorn movie and not because I look for meaning or substance. The shot with Anakin cutting down the Neimodian was just raw. I love it! No talking, just straight up death dealing.

I think there was a lot of heavy handed snap judgments that it sucked royally from people that watched one episode. But if you were to watch the first episode of the first Gunbuster and base your criticism on that episode alone, you would miss out on the greatness that followed. There were also people that felt that it was too much of a departure from the first one. I empathize with that and did feel let down in all honesty. However, I guess the only thing that got me to keep watching was that it was a Gainax production and animation out of that studio is still leaps and bounds above most other anime except for Ghibli stuff. I guess I just put it out of my mind that it is related in any way to Noriko and her story and think of it more as a "re-imagining" of the Gunbuster story. Noriko and Kazumi's story is more personal in a way, and this Gunbuster feels more about flash rather than any semblance of a personal story.

LOL! You have to admit, Heero never suffered from any of this pretty boy angst crap and just wanted to stab people in their eyeballs and cause mass mayhem.

I liked it and I'm willing to give it a chance before slamming on it. I'm a big fan of the original and I can accept the sequel for what it is. I could see someone saying that the analogy might be the difference between the original Macross and Macross 7. One thing that is impressing me is the quality of the animation. The character designs are a mixed bag, but that's what the director's intent was when he wanted to use FLCL as a sort of template. I'd take this Gainax production over the usual generic anime that is uninspired. Who cares what the consensus thinks - watch it for yourself and make your own decision.

Just to think someone actually went as far as taking a picture of a plastic ass... man... Although, I must say, on the scale of plastic molded and painted asses, it probably is on the high end.

Speak for yourself, I still think the Impulse looks like a badly executed V Gundam. I think it's hilarious when the torso launches and it looks unabashedly like a huge blue and white hunk of metal torso flying around. Then again, I shouldn't be so hard considering I could swallow seeing Voltes V's big honking torso flying around, although I was 5 years old when I last watched that on TV.

I agree that the Freedom looks more advanced than the Destiny. Destiny basically looks like a hodgepodge of the other Seed Destiny EA Gundams, and that's saying alot since Okawara at least takes elements from older Gundams to make new ones. When I look at the Freedom, the color scheme vaguely reminds me of the Nu Gundam with the Gundam Double-X's satellite backpack. The Destiny doesn't make me recall any older designs, just a mish mash of the ones from this series. In spite of that, I don't think it looks hideous. My vote for favorite SEED MS still goes to the Providence, it reminds me so much of the Gundam Mark II.

Could someone PM me where to find the raw for episode 2? I can't seem to find it anywhere. It's been out for a bit and no one's fansubbed it yet?

But the Architect doesn't wear flannel...