Animals (Day 253)

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED didn't immediately grab me like of these other anime series did. I've only watched a single episode so far, but it's left me without any memorable impressions. I can't say it with certainty but it seems like the series might be a bit more focused on the plot than the characters--but again, it's hard to say. I feel like the first episode of show, anime or otherwise, should be informative and memorable, but after watching the first episode of Gundam SEED, I didn't really feel anything at all.

It reminds me of Gundam Wing, which I haven't watched it many years. There were long stretches of time in which nothing much happened. For a series about giant robots, it was actually very dry. As a kid I found a lot of it brutally uninteresting, despite liking the robots and some of the characters. I wonder if Gundam SEED might fall prey to the same issues. I'm going to watch at least a couple more episodes before I really form an opinion on it.

On the bright side, the animation quality and art are quite good. I'm watching the remastered edition, and the attention to detail really shows. It's very pretty to look at compared to some of the other things I'm watching right now, although it is a considerably newer series. Even though I've only watched one episode, I think it introduced just about every character present in Super Robot Wars J, even if they weren't explicitly named. I definitely saw Kira, Mu, Murrue, Natarle, Sai, Tolle, Miriallia, and Kuzzey. I'm not sure if I saw Cagalli or not. It's possible her name was translated differently. In the subs for Brain Powerd, certain names were different--like Russ instead of Lasse, and Comodo instead of Komodo. 

I'm thinking about rewatching Full Metal Panic as well, because I'm not watching nearly enough shows already. I'd like to watch the other series that I never got to, but I'm a little fuzzy on the events involved despite Super Robot Wars J giving me a refresher. I also never watched the dub, so I thought maybe I'd try that out. According to a few clips on YouTube, Gauron doesn't sound nearly as sinister, but dubs have the added benefit of allowing me to do other things while watching. I've also already watched the series before, so it's just more convenient.