I swear, Gundam SEED is like that Nirvana music us Gen-Xers jammed out to in the nineties. In life, there was that chaotic energy that we couldn't hope to control or understand; nothing but relief felt when it was gone for good. The drama of being a teen was captured in the music, and SEED doesn't do half bad at it either. It goes without saying that the angst-ridden teenager is a plentiful source of drama, and that most of us aren't going to care much about the daily crises at the Hormone Ward. Been there, done that. What Gundam SEED does is give us a little bit of that youthful energy in all the characters, and (thankfully) in controlled doses.

Instead of doing the Critic Thing and cross-referencing the commercial impacts of the various Gundam series with the hair color of each show's cast to form some elaborate conclusion about the socioeconomic imprint to be left by this latest Gundam offering, I just tried to figure out why I like this show. The show has nothing new from the angst department, really, nor is it particularly unique within its own franchise. It's true that Gundam was never your typical teen drama, but SEED does come awfully close at times. Not entirely far-fetched is the possibility that it works because these teen characters actually have a justification for behaving the way they do. It's war; people die, and friends and loved ones get separated. It's life and death, not hair and popularity scores. Except with Lacus, where the strife has nothing on the hair.

The third volume appears intent on making Kira suffer for his goodwill. (Of course, after the Dante treatment he'll be a regular Luke Skywalker and save the Galaxy after discovering his sister and going goth, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.) Since he's just looking after his friends, Kira isn't exactly the by-the-book type of soldier. This causes some tension with the military types, when he does the "right thing," even if it spells strategic suicide. It also doesn't help that the odds are definitely in ZAFT's favor, being that they hold four of the five new mobile suits and are using them to pursue the ship that Kira ended up on. Kira's limits are stressed from having to fight four coordinators, naturally, and the predicament causes some truly tragic events in this volume.

But...it says here that I was supposed to be the prodigal pilot!	This little girl gives Kira a present to cheer him up, but the show has other plans....

On a lighter note, SEED is no different from other Gundams in its amusing depiction of the military. The arbitrary complications that pop up in the third volume are almost funny in their ridiculousness. Civilians can't serve on a military vessel, so all the kids get "discharge" papers when the ship docks with the main fleet. But because they're civilians, they weren't exactly bound to military rules in the first place. Very Catch-22-ish.

Gundam SEED offers no reason to stop watching, so we won't! We'll look for more admirals with names that sound like "Halliburton" when pronounced by Japanese people (very cute, guys), among other things. Check out our review of the fourth volume when it arrives, for more Gundam goodness!

Video Quality: A
Audio Quality: A
Presentation: B+
Content: A-
Overall: A-