Gundam Seed Volume 2: Unexpected Meetings (DVD) - Anime Reviews


	Number of Episodes 5 Language Options English/Japanese/English Subtitles Released by Bandai Entertainment Extras - “Invoke” Music Video - Gundam Seed Mechanical File #2
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Gundam Seed Volume 2: Unexpected Meetings (DVD)

Kira continues to defend the Archangel in the Strike Gundam, although he hates doing it. His friends have also decided to help out, and have taken over various duties on the ship. They don’t want Kira to feel he’s fighting alone.

But Kira’s loyalties are tested when Athrun again returns in the stolen Aegis to battle his old friend. To make matters worse, when the Archangel rescues the pop singer Lacus Clyne from a lifepod, she is used as a hostage in battle. As he and Athrun clash again, Athrun asks him how he can fight for people who would use an innocent girl as a hostage. Kira knows that Athrun is right, and that Lacus was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now, he is faced with perhaps the most difficult choice in his young life; the fate of Lacus may lie in his hands.

Well, at this point, the ship Archangel has managed to escape the ruin of Heliopolis, but they aren’t exactly in the clear with the ZAFT forces sticking nearby. They’ve made for the nearest port, Artemis, and are hoping to re-supply and continue to head towards the Earth Fleet headquarters on the moon.

Episode 06: The Vanishing Gundam

The Archangel has arrived at Artemis, but their arrival isn’t exactly like being greeted with roses. The commanding officers have been “brought for questioning” and the rest of the crew is being held in the mess hall under guard. Artemis’ command claims that the hold-up is due to the lack of IFF recognition for the ship (which makes sense on a test-bed ship) but they are more interested in looking into all aspects of the carrier, especially the Strike Gundam. However, Strike has been locked down by Kira, and so the technical crew cannot examine the Gundam’s OS system. And so, the guards begin to put pressure on the crew to find out more information about the suit. Once Kira reveals himself, the Earth Forces don’t believe that he’s the pilot – but Flay not only confirms it, she also reveals that he’s a coordinator. Believing him to be a traitor to their side, his treatment is obviously improved and the staff begins pumping him for information and begin to see whether he can reverse engineer some equipment to use against the ZAFT forces.

For the ZAFT side, the carrier remains outside the defensive perimeter of Artemis, and they don’t think that they can breach the defenses. But Nicol has come up with an interesting idea – he’s going to use Blitz’s masking to try and sneak past the perimeter and cripple the defenses from the inside of the perimeter. The mission goes smoothly, after causing some damage, the perimeter defenses begin activating

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– as they go up, he can identify the most important pieces and easily blow them up unopposed. The damage to the station become serious, and the crew of the Archangel jumps to action – they quickly overpower their guards and prepare the ship for launch and their commanding officers do the same. Making for the exit, the Archangel launches while Kira and Strike try to contain Blitz. With the loss of the station imminent, Archangel retreats and Kira runs back to base.

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Episode 07: The Scar of Space

After the escape from the exploding Artemis station, the situation hasn’t changed for the Archangel – they are still desperately low on supplies, especially water. And so Captain Murrue has to make an unpopular decision – they are going to go into a nearby debris field and search for useful supplies amongst the hulled ships floating in space. Most of the crew does not want to disrupt these scenes, especially with dead floating in them, but the need for water and food are going to override their natural disgust. When the only supply of useable water turns out to be a reservoir from the wreakage of Junius Seven (the site of the Bloody Valentine Massacre – Earth used nuclear weapons against the installation killing thousands of Coordinators). While excavating the site, a Jinn arrives and Kira is forced to dispatch it but it was protecting a lifepod, which Kira recovers and brings back to the Archangel. It’s contents: one girl. She’s Lacus Clyne, daughter of the Chairman for the PLANT command, pop-star, Athrun’s fiancée, and downright hottie.

Le Creuset and Athrun have returned the PLANTs to make their report on the attack at Heliopolis and the enemy forces that have escaped. Athrun’s father has read the early version of the report, but has made one deletion – he’s removed any reference to Kira in the report, especially the fact that the pilot is a Coordinator. They want to remove any potential for the ZAFT side to get caught up in the idea of defections. Reporting upon the amended findings, the flames of war are being fanned.

Episode 08: Songstress of the Enemy Forces

The presence of Lacus on board the Archangel is causing more than a few problems amongst the crew and command. Most of the crew is fearful of Coordinators and aren’t quite sure how to process the presence of one on their ship – especially Flay who cannot separate her hatred and fear from the timid girl in Lacus. The Captain is arguing with Ensign Natarle and Commader La Flaga about their course of action with this potentially valuable civilian – the Captain wants to keep her protected, but Natarle believes that she could be a valuable bargaining chip later. After a nasty incident in the mess hall between Lacus and Flay – Flay’s intolerance of the Coordinators is voiced and Kira becomes Lacus’ unofficial escort. The crew’s spirits are thankfully lifted when they hear from one of the Earth Fleets – they are going to send out a forward force to link up with the Archangel and escort the ship into formation. Flay learns that her father is one of the members of this forward group.

With the loss of such an important personality for the ZAFT, Le Creuset’s forces depart early and are given the additional task of searching for Lacus; and they have a good lead to start with, one of the Jinn searches of the debris field did not return to base. So the forces are going to start searching the debris field for any signs of the Archangel and Lacus. While en route, they intercept traffic and notice the forward group for the Earth Fleet – sensing that this could be a good opportunity to intercept the Archangel, Le Creuset orders his fleet to move to intercept that flight group.

Episode 09: The Fading Light

Spirits on board the Archangel are lifting with the sight of the Earth Fleet ships coming into view. However, Le Creuset’s fleet is moving into position to prevent any ship from re-supplying the Archangel and launches an attack against the forward group. The Archangel is ordered to withdraw and avoid the battle, but once the Captain sees that the Aegis is part of the attacking force, she orders the Archangel to battle stations and moves the ship into the fight. The battle doesn’t go particularly well for the Earth Fleet – Aegis and 3 Jinn are running roughshod over the defenders and La Flaga and Kira aren’t able to turn the battle with their presence. As the fight continues, each of the 4 capital ships are being sunk from the sustained fire of the enemy, until only the Montgomery which Flay’s father is aboard.

With the intense battle, Flay sneaks onto the bridge and when she sees that the Earth Forces are being routed she is visibly upset and wants to know if her father’s ship is still intact. After being dragged off the bridge, she has a flash of insight, she takes Lacus hostage and tells the bridge crew that she will kill Lacus if they don’t tell the ZAFT to stop attacking. Before they can transmit, the Montgomery is hit and explodes. Ensign Natarle isn’t one to miss a chance, she transmits the order to the ZAFT Fleet and they have no choice but to cease fire.

Episode 10: Separate Ways

The hostage tactic being used by the Command doesn’t sit well with Kira, and Athrun accuses him of being aligned with cowards. Flay has become pretty inconsolable about the death of her father in front of her, and when Kira tries to help console her, she lashes out at him. The worst part of the attack is her accusation that he isn’t fighting as hard as he could because he’s fighting against Coordinators and doesn’t want to hurt them. Kira is going to do something to break up the situation – he’s going to bring Lacus to the ZAFT forces, but as he’s trying to sneak her to the loading bay he comes across Sai. His friend agrees that the situation is unconscionable and will help him escape with Lacus.

Heading to Strike, Kira launches with Lacus on board and in space he contacts the enemy carrier with the demand that Athrun launch in Aegis to take Lacus back. Le Creuset agrees and Aegis launches and Kira hands over Lacus to his former friend. In the instant that Lacus is aboard Aegis, Le Creuset launches on board his person mobile suit and plans to attack the Archangel during the confusion. Seeing what Le Creuset is doing, Lacus orders him to stand down and all forces then return to their carriers.

This disc of Gundam Seed did the job perfectly of keeping the action moving smoothly and keeping all of the dog fights grounded nicely in reality. Excellent disc.

- Tazman

(September 12, 2005)

"Nobody's 'sposta touch me where my bathing suit is."

- Tardy the Turtle (Greg the Bunny)

Anime: Gundam Seed Volume 10: Day of Destiny (DVD)


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