Discussion
There's going to be a lot of spoiler talk, so beware!
Where to begin? What a wild ride; SEED Freedom does not let up! I feel like it could've been an extra 20-30 minutes give the viewer a bit more of a breather, and to explore the logistics and technology of Foundation, but is most certainly not a boring movie! I can totally see why people see this movie 2 or 3 times. There's so much going on, and a lot of details to pick up as you watch.
I don't know if the writers are laying even more bread crumbs for the future, but there is 100% some newtype psychic communication going on with Kira. Kira gets a couple newtype flashes in SEED Freedom. Lacus and Shinn both get them as well, but it felt like they got them because Kira was reaching out to them. I'm just going off memory, so maybe I'm misremembering some details, but there's something going on with Kira's newtype abilities.
The music is amazing and really pulls you into the scene. For my money, Toshihiko Sahashi is the best composer in Gundam.
The animation is stellar. Absolutely gorgeous work by Sunrise. The future of Gundam animation is looking great!
I could gush for paragraph after paragraph about the standout scenes, but one that I haven't seen talked about in too much detail is Akatsuki getting hit by Requiem.
It was so damn awesome watching Akatsuki and Mu take the Requiem blast right after Mu destroys one of the beam rings with a (super cool) rail cannon. It really looked like Requiem reached to just about to the very limit of what Akatsuki could handle, with the suit glowing red hot and the physical shield being destroyed. And the scene of Requiem's beam being split apart and reflected by Akatsuki all back onto the moon is so satisfying.
All in all, SEED Freedom is easily the most entertaining Gundam movie I've seen. It doesn't have the gravitas and impact to CE world building like CCA does in UC, but it does move the CE story further along.
Oh, and Shinn and Luna are great. More Shinn and more Destiny please.
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Q&A
Why did they change the lips for all the female characters?? 😭
I believe it was to make them appear more mature.
I never really noticed it during the film though.
This movie definitely really emphasized the Newtypes. It seems all the Accords are Newtypes, since both Kira, Shinn, and Mu got the Newtype Flash when fighting them. Lacus is clearly one too.
I think the Accord project was unwittingly about creating Newtypes, they just didn't have the word for it in CE. They didn't realize that Newtypes can be naturally awakened too. Kira wasn't a failure, his Newtype abilities just didn't awaken at birth/creation.
EDIT: I think's it's also not a reach to conclude that SEED Mode might just be another Newtype ability, and that even guys like Cagalli and Athrun are latent Newtypes. They're the only other SEED Mode users after all.
It kinda sounds like the Accords are almost CE genetically-designed cyber newtypes, whereas people like Kira, Mu, and Shinn are proper newtypes who developed into their abilities.
See, I'm not sure if the newtype flashes we saw with Shinn and Lacus are from them, or from Kira reaching out to them.
With Lacus, Kira is trying to reach out to her, and I think the same as true for Shinn, though I don't remember his newtype flash as well in Justice.
There's definitely something going on with newtype abilities in CE though!
Even if Shinn and Lacus's flashes are from Kira, Mu's flash was definitely in response to an Accord while he was piloting the Murasame. I think this pretty much confirms the Accords are Newtypes.
Oh yeah, for sure. Mu has always had them from the very start. Kira is the only one where there's been a gradual change in him from SEED to Destiny, and in Freedom as well.
I think's it's also not a reach to conclude that SEED Mode might just be another Newtype ability, and that even guys like Cagalli and Athrun are latent Newtypes. They're the only other SEED Mode users, after all. But of course, this is just headcanon at this point.
About the whole accord stuff, Fukuda seems to really reject the idea that they are newtypes (from a prescon or x) and with them with their own set of distinct abilities and an upgraded version of the ultimate coordinator project.
And i dont remember newtypes have the upgraded physical enhancements a coordinator has.
The Seed factor is in everyone, the possibility of unlocking it is just quite rare....
The SEED Factor is presented in the story as an evolutionary trait. It doesn't make sense for everyone to have it.
Well Cagalli exist and she js an actual natural....
Being a Natural is irrelevant. Coordinators aren't even an actual evolution, unlike SEED Factor and/or Newtypes.
They are not from the ultimate coordinator project
Actually, the Akatsuki tanking and reflecting the Requiem blast was something I didn't like. I can understand it reflecting a battleship's positron canon like the Minerva's, but the Requiem? At point blank range, fully charged??
My brother, who's only watched the compilation movies just last week, asked me about that and I had guessed it wasn't a fully charge shot. But if it was, that's crazy.
I just hope there's more Seed stories in our future cause that ending was not satisfying to me as a send off for the series.
I loved that scene. It's the first time you see Akatsuki's armor being pushed to its limit, at least that's what it looked like to me, with the suit edges glowing hot. More impressive, was how it depicted Akatsuki's beam reflection struggling to point the beams back at the source.
There is 100% more CE in our future. This is the most successful Gundam movie in history, by a long shot too. After watching the movie, I want more Kira and Lacus, more Athurn, more Shinn, more Mu, more everyone. Everyone is great in the movie.
Fingers crossed we get more!
Mwu said it himself, he makes the impossible possible 😎
… But it’s hard work. :)
Akatsuki was definitely pushed to the limits with that shot. According to Gamore and other commentaries, the reflective coating was peeled and Mwu was forced to lay low after that stunt.
Wished they made that more obvious. Would have also explained Akatsuki’s absence for most of the end fight.
Not even mentioning that the Zeus Silhouette would have eaten the majority of the Akatsuki's battery rendering it non combat capable.
It may not seem obvious the armor of the Akatsuki was peeled off almost completely deflecting Requiem that Mu's catchphrase of "Making the Impossible possible" was perhaps that. Pushing the limit on what the Yata-no-Gami
I watched it, and I don't feel like articulating much except it was great and worth a rewatch, if they offered another subtitled airing.
The only other thing I really want to say was I LOVED the remixes of old instrumental tunes used during the series. Some added new elements to old songs (the piano piece; forgot if it was Theme of Tears or another title, but it added more piano flourish), while others got entirely new instrumentation and beat (the instrumental version of one of Lacus' songs during the cooking scene).
Yes! The music does an amazing job of feeling nostalgic and new at the same time. I loved that piano piece as well. I forget the name of the track, but I'll be looking through my SEED and Destiny OST's for it tonight.
As a quick ramble, I loved Orb's attempt to show they weren't violating the threat of requiem by having a token naval fleet deliberately open fire on the Millennium for going rogue. Sure, it didn't work this time, but nevertheless.
"Sir, I have learned how to properly miss every shot from the Colonel!"
If it wasn't for Foundation monitoring Orb and the Millennium so closely because they planned to annihilate them anyway, I wonder if it could have actually worked.
There's a lot of detail in the movie. No lines of dialog sounded wasted to me.
I think this is the one.
I was so happy that my guess from the leaks about the akatsuki getting hit by requiem came true, I just wished it looked more like a disco ball.
There's so many scenes I want to pick apart, like Akatsuki reflecting Requiem as best it can. Just gotta wait for the blu-ray release.
Tomorrow I’m gonna to watch gundam seed freedom for the 3rd time since I already seen gundam seed freedom for 2nd and it’s was so great tbh :)
I wish I could! We only got the Japanese dub for tonight, and I'm not gonna watch the English dub.
Tommorow is also Japanese dub with sub in my local theatre
Look man, I'm glad you enjoyed the film, I mean that.
But to give an animator's perspective on the character animation, it's massively lacking the quality present in Doan's Island and Hathaway. For example, Lacus' cooking scene. With the way Fukuda talked about it, I expected to see the process of her battering the food for the deep fry and checking the oil's temp, making sure everything is perfect for Kira. But it's just a couple basic shots with the food already prepped and frying.
Action scenes and music were really solid like you said. Plus that bit about Shinn not thinking so the Accords couldn't read his mind, boy is a gorilla and I'm here for it
The character animation is great. It's Gundam SEED and SEED Destiny, and that's what it feels like through and through. I'm sure they could've added even more details, but I was noticing a ton of intricacies all over the place. The palace in Foundation for example is full of fine detailing and intricate textures, as one would expect.
My comments on the animation quality were mostly aimed more at the action, since that's where the fundamental shift has occurred in mecha, to 3D computer models. SEED Freedom does a fantastic job getting that 2D look out of those 3D models, better than Hathaway's Flash. I especially liked how they recreated shots from Destiny perfectly, such as Impulse switching packs.
Shinn holding Luna at gunpoint is one of my personal favourite. I thought it was cute and funny. It's refreshing to see Shinn not angry angry lol. Overall, I love the movie too. Glad you like it.
Shinn is great. He provides just enough comedy, but doesn't become just the comic relief. The core of his character is still the same as it's always been, he just wants to help, and be useful, but he's still got that self-confidence in him, especially when he gets Destiny back.