Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny Volume 4

Volume 4 gets off to a flying start (literally) as the Minerva is attacked by mobile suits on the way to Suez. Neo Roanoke takes to the skies with the Extended pilots Auel and Sting, leaving Stella behind to defend their concealed secret base.
‘Where could the attackers have come from?’ asks Captain Gladys as she gives the order to lower the bridge for mobile suit action.

Stella, believing her beloved Neo to be in trouble, rushes to his defence, resulting in a dramatic duel with Shinn. This leads them inland, where Shinn discovers the secret base. Seeing that the local people have been press-ganged into working for the earth Alliance, he is filled with rage and goes on the rampage, destroying the base and setting free the forced labour.

Neo, realizing that his forces are outmatched, calls a retreat. But Auel is out for blood and, ignoring the order, attacks the submarine Nyiragongo. The battle moves from the air to underwater – with disastrous results.

Athrun clashes with Shinn, striking him in front of his fellow pilots for disobeying orders. ‘If you have all this power, take responsibility for it!’ he tells him. Yet when the need arises to fly a dangerous mission to disable the powerful Lohengrin battery, Athrun doesn’t hesitate to choose Shinn as the best pilot for the mission. Shinn at last begins to listen to the more experienced Athrun, who admits that he sees something of his younger self in him. The changing relationship between them is well portrayed here, contrasting Shinn’s hot-headed, short-fused nature with Athrun’s more guarded, repressed personality.

The first half of Volume 4 is high-octane and action-based. But the pace alters, after Shinn’s skilful piloting opens the Lohengrin Gate. Arriving in the Black Sea city of Diocuia for a little R & R, the crew of the Minerva are greeted by the extraordinary sight of pop idol ‘Lacus Clyne’ performing for the cheering troops on a pink Gundam. ‘What an amazing coincidence!’ exclaims Arthur Trine enthusiastically. ‘Exactly,’ counters Captain Gladys dryly, having spotted Durandal in the distance. Athrun, knowing that the singer is really Meer Campbell, is reluctantly forced to play along with the deception, wondering all the while exactly what Chairman Durandal is up to. When Durandal later takes Athrun to one side and asks if he knows where the Archangel is, he answers honestly that he has no idea. Durandal seems genuinely concerned for Lacus Clyne’s safety – but we know what Athrun is unaware of: elite troops were sent from ZAFT to eliminate Lacus, probably on Durandal’s orders. His solicitous tone and concerned manner no longer ring true.

Durandal entertains the top pilots of the Minerva and listens to their opinions about the conflict. He then tells them that unseen forces are supporting the war to make a profit from the production of new weaponry. ‘That’s sick!’ exclaims Shinn as Durandal goes on to reveal that he suspects Logos is responsible. ‘I’m going to change all that,” says Durandal. ‘If possible.’ They are introduced to a sympathetic new pilot, Heine Westenfluss and his new mobile suit, the ZGMG-X2000 GOUF IGNITED, no less, (painted orange, Heine’s favourite colour, according to the Data in the Extras).

The last episode on the disc, ‘Past’, is basically a filler episode – but rather cleverly constructed as fillers go, as it explores Shinn’s troubled past, as well as flashing back to the traumatic events in the previous war that eventually brought Athrun, Cagalli and Kira back together.

What is laudable about Gundam SEED Destiny is that it consistently highlights the less glamorous side of war and exposes the bleak aftermath of conflict. It doesn’t shy away from portraying civilian casualties, or the grim reprisals that ensue. If there are villains here, they are the politicians and those who profit from the making of weapons.

Particularly telling is the way we are shown the differing expressions on the face of young Shinn, eyes gleaming, exultant as the townspeople welcome him as their liberator – and the older Athrun’s saddened look as he witnesses the civilians meting out brutal justice to their captured EA oppressors, shooting them in the head.

My only problem is with the incongruous names of some of the weaponry. It’s really hard not to laugh when Arthur Trine gives the order ‘Load all tubes with Parsifals!’ The big guns and ammo are named after Wagnerian operas: Tristans, Isoldes, the Lohengrin. Rather aptly, composer Toshihiko Sahashi, resorts to Wagnerian-sounding brass fanfares here to accompany the battle sequence.

In Summary

Gundam SEED Destiny is moving along at a fine pace now, with the conflict between the biologically-enhanced Coordinators of ZAFT and the Naturals fast escalating towards another potentially tragic outcome. Yet there’s comedy here too, especially in the portrayal of Athrun’s romantic complications with ‘Lacus Clyne’. Still worth watching.