Review
Oh, Gundam SEED...
I have a big love-hate relationship with this series. One moment I adore this series, the next I'm shredding it to bits. Ok, starting with what I love about this series. I love the characters. Cagalli is one of the strongest female leads in a Gundam series (in my opinion), and Lacus Clyne is someone I want to be like (I've cosplayed her multiple times). Furthermore, I adore Athrun Zala - as a fangirl and as a ordinary fan. Even the side characters get their time to shine, and you really care about what happens to them by the end. I cried a lot while watching this series, even for characters I hated.

The plot is good, though the way it's told isn't (I'll get to that soon). Themes of betrayal, love, and friendship come through great, and the struggle between the Coordinators and Naturals is difficult question handled beautifully.

And, now, with the new Remaster available legally on YouTube, the character designs look great. I say "now" because before the remaster everyone's faces look the same, to a humorous degree. However, the models were improved and the faces look much more natural.

The music is also pretty good for this series, and the OPs and EDs by T.M. Revolution and Nami Tamaki are serious earworms. The 1st ED is by See-Saw, which is a duo group. While See-Saw is rather unknown, the songwriter and non-singer of the group is anime soundtrack composing legend Yuki Kajiura.

Now to my gripes with the series.

Sub versus dubWatch the sub. The dub in fine, per se, but I found Kira's voice to be more annoying in English, Athrun's voice too deep, and Cagalli sounded really whiny and immature.

My biggest gripe with this series is the first 15 episodes. While the first twi are fantastic, there was really no plot up to episode 15 and the first character I liked, Lacus, showed up at episode 8. Finally at episode 15ish, I started liking the series enough to marathon the rest very quickly. However, those first episodes were annoyingly boring, with lots of talking and boringness. However, after episode 15, the series gets REALLY good. In short, this series would be 10x better if it had been 10 episodes shorter.

Also, a lot of people, like me, will get really irritated with Kira, our main character, since he's such a wimp sometimes. That being said, he's a pacifist, and truly doesn't want to be a fighter, so I guess it's understandable.

Violence/Gore
This is a mecha show, so a lot of exploding manned robots and spaceships. There is little blood, although sometimes a pilot's helmet goes red before the mecha explodes. Characters also point pistols at one another. One character attempts to stab another at one point. Typical war violence, but with minimal blood shown.

Sexual Content/Nudity
The most problematic area for this series. The opening theme features the naked silhouette of a very busty woman. A naked girl's form can be seen through some sheets. Characters kiss, and a teenage couple leave a bedroom together, implying impure relationships.

However, unlike most Gundam series, SEED also deals with sex as a main plot point. In particular, a male character is seen putting on his pants with an obviously naked girl in the bed behind him. It is later made clear that they had sex. This is not sex out of mutual love. The female in question Spoiler: Fllay Allster has sex with Kira to "motivate" him to fight. This girl, twisted by grief, is just using her sexuality to her advantage for evil intentions.It is also worth noting the two characters involved are 15 and 16, which apparently caused an uproar from the original Japanese audience. One redeeming aspect of this is that I almost find this sex scene not as encouragement of underage/extramarital sex but actually condemning, since for the characters involved it does more harm than good. That's my personal interpretation, however, so take that as you will.

Theological Themes
While the subject of spirituality never comes up exactly, I gave this series a three because of the ongoing theme of human genetic engineering (a hotly debated issue in Christian circles).
-see next section-

Problematic Themes
Coordinators are humans genetically altered before birth, giving them superior physical and mental characteristics to the rest of the human race. The entire war in this series is between the Coordinators and Naturals. The subject of Spoiler: cloning also becomes crucial to the plot later in the series.