Gundam Seed Volume 9: Evolutionary Conflicts (DVD) - Anime Reviews


	Number of Episodes 5 Language Options English/Japanese/English Subtitles Released by Bandai Entertainment Extras - Gundam Encyclopedia - Nami Tamaki “Believe” Music Video - Textless Opening #4
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Gundam Seed Volume 9: Evolutionary Conflicts (DVD)

The Archangel and the Kusanagi have escaped Orb and are now in space. Athrun makes a return visit home to the PLANTs to confront his father, who enraged at his failure, he arrests him. Lacus, meanwhile, steals a new ZAFT warship and helps rescue Athrun, along with the help of someone from Kira’s past. The Eternal joins the Kusanagi and the Archangel.

But Rau Le Creuset is ordered to pursue the Eternal, and the Federation’s new ship, the Dominion, is ordered to capture the Freedom and Justice Gundams. The Dominion attacks the Archangel, and Murrue is shocked to learn who its captain is.

Mu senses Rau’s presence and goes after him. When his Strike Gundam is damaged, Kira shows up and destroys Rau’s mobile suit. Kira and Mu then pursue him into the Mendel colony. Rau proceeds to relate a story that involves himself, Kira, and Mu. Meanwhile, the Dominion attacks the Archangel again, with Kira and Mu still gone.

The last disc ended with the government of Orb self-destructing rather than hand over it’s technological capabilities to the Federation. Now in space, the Archangel and Kusanagi are going to have to fight for peace without a home-base.

Episode 41: Trembling World

The Kusanagi and Archangel decide to head out to PLANT 4 to look for some supplies for their ships, but the weight of the deaths back home is especially hard on Cagalli who has been holed up. Cagalli eventually works up the courage to show Kira the picture of them as newborns – they are both surprise to discover that they are twins, but they cannot identify the woman in the picture who is holding them. Athrun continues to stew about the moves that his father is making as the new leader of the ZAFT forces, and he comes to the conclusion that he needs to borrow a shuttle and return home to confront the man.

Back in PLANT, Lacus is working a nasty uprising against the ZAFT domination much like the underground radio in World War II and her supporters are increasing in number against the military strikes that have been dominating their lives in the past while. However, her fight does no proceed without costs, as her father is gunned down when his sect is discovered and raided.

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Episode 42: Lacus Strikes

Athrun heads out from the Archangel with Kira flying escort to the boarders of PLANT space. Once back home, Athrun is brought before his father and he finally gets to question what his father’s goals are in this war. When Chairman Zala states that he wants the genocide of the naturals, Athrun refuses to help his father and even tries to attack him. Branded a traitor, Athrun is taken into custody and is going to be brought to jail. While being transferred, Lacus’ organization springs a trap and frees him.

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Now racing towards the ship docks, Lacus’ group is in the middle of stealing a capital ship and Athrun is able to link up. The ship Eternal is intended to be the launch bed for the Freedom and Justice, but does not have any Gundam complement at the time of launch. Not wanting to let the group escape, Zala orders Rau Le Creuset to give chase and he sends a group of Mobile Ginns to attack the ship. With nothing but the ship’s guns to defend, the Dominion tries to prevent a sinking but the overwhelming numbers make thing look hopeless until Kira arrives with Freedom to stop the attackers.

Episode 43: What Stands In The Way

The Federation prepares to send out their own capital ship to search for the Archangel and Kusanagi, and for the mission, the new ship Dominion is being chosen and its’ commanding officer is the former First Officer of the Archangel, Lieutenant Natarle. Their mission is to recover the two suits Freedom and Justice. For ZAFT, Le Creuset leads a task group to search for the suits as well, and he still has Flay with him.

The now group of three ships have linked up at the Mendel colony and are busy loading supplies and preparing all of the ships for the rigors of the coming space battles, but as usual, come under attack from the Dominion who are carrying a task force of Mobile Suits and the prototype Gundams. The battle does not start out well with the Eternal needing more time to launch and the Kusanagi being caught in debris upon launching. The Archangel is quickly being dominated by the attackers and is even hit by multiple torpedoes.

On the edge of the battle, Le Creuset senses a chance to investigate the area and heads out in his personal Gundam to examine the Mendel colony. However, Commander Mu senses the presence of his sworn enemy and abandons the battle to chase after his nemesis.

Episode 44: Spiral Of Encounters

The space battle ends after the Federation forces are forced to withdraw as the power levels for the prototypes drops too low. With the Kusanagi able to free itself and the Archangel in range, the Dominion stages a retreat for the time being. However, Natarle is not happy with the pilots for the prototypes and doesn’t think that they are reliable as soldiers, but she is unable to avoid using them.

Kira decides to head after Commander Mu who has followed La Creuset into the Mendel colony. After disabling La Creuset’s Gundam, he escapes into the colony on foot and Mu chases after him. Kira doesn’t want to lose sight of Mu and so he joins into the gun fight in the station between the enemies. As they head into the bowels of the station, La Creuset taunts his prey and reveals information about the station’s past (the station appears to have some sort of equipment for the manipulation of the human genome, as there are numerous tanks with fetuses growing in them). Le Creuset is able to shoot Mu and forces a standoff against Kira, but he first promises to tell them more about the station but not before he shows the pair the same picture that Cagilla had, and a picture of Mu with his father.

Episode 45: The Opening Door

The battle in the bowels of the Mendel colony have some startling revelation about Kira’s past – he is the first product of a program to create a child without a womb. What’s more, he has been created to be the ultimate coordinator by the program’s lead scientist. The woman in the picture is his mother – the wife of the project leader, who also is a scientist. La Creuset finally reveals his hatred of Mu comes from the fact that he is a failed clone of Mu’s father who was abandoned and has since had a vendetta against Mu and his family. The battle ends in a near stalemate as Mu is seriously hurt, but Kira and Mu are able to force La Creuset to retreat back to his ship.

Outside, the Dominion is preparing for another attack but the defenders are in serious trouble with most of their pilots in the station. It looks as though Athrun and the M1 forces are going to have to defend against the incoming attackers by themselves (which isn’t going to be pretty). Once the battle is joined, Athrun manages to avoid the worst of the attacks until Kira is able to join him in the defense. But the worst possible scenario has developed – La Creuset has returned to his flagship and has ordered his ships to move in to attack all forces. But before he makes way, he puts Flay into an escape pod with the information disk that he says can end the war, and tells her to make sure that the Federation gets ahold of this data. Who knows what the man is planning?

This disc of Gundam Seed certainly has had its’ fair share of plot twists and action and I for one have no idea where this is going. It was a definitely high tempo disc and with the last disc bringing this story arc to a close, the final episodes should be exciting for sure.

- Tazman

(June 11, 2005)

"You lost 5% of your brain."

"Me lose brain?"

- Marge and Homer (Simpsons)

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