Following the end of Gundam SEED Destiny, Gundam SEED Freedom shows a fragile peace that’s on the verge of collapse, and specters returning from the past.
A year after the Second Alliance-PLANT War, Kira and friends are now part of an anti-terrorist organization known as Compass. With endless attacks from Blue Cosmos, the weary members of Compass are seemingly offered support from a new independent nation known as Foundation.
Upon arrival, we are immediately introduced to the Black Knight Squad, the Royal Guard of the Foundation’s queen, and very clearly the soon-to-be bad guys. The Foundation’s prime minister also appears to have a unique bond to Lacus, and romantic advances ensue.
The resultant teaming up of Foundation with Compass results in a complete catastrophe and a very clearly telegraphed betrayal from the aforementioned bad guys, the Black Knight Squad.
A few nuclear missiles later, Foundation’s capital is in ashes, and Kira and friends are seemingly down, but thankfully not out.
The subsequent turnaround of strategy and the return of Kira and friends to the mobile suit fray results in some of the nicest mecha combat animation we’ve seen in a good few years.
While I am skipping over the story, there is a lot here that is actually very good. While I was never the biggest fan of Gundam SEED, the core conflict between Naturals and Coordinators, and what it means to be human, are very much at the core of this film.
Moreover, the appalling Destiny plan, which would have had humanity organized based on genetic makeup rather than the desires of any given individual, is ramped up further here. With the ruling class of the Destiny plan, newly known as Accords, being the main antagonists, not to mention a somehow fully functional Requiem super weapon.
Admittedly, it’s all done in pretty broad strokes, with the Black Knight Squad being almost laughably evil, but there’s a thoughtful message here, amongst all the high-speed mecha combat, that a person’s heart and choices cannot be determined by genes.
Talking of mecha, I loved the very non-Gundam mobile suits piloted by the Black Knight Squad, and their mecha designs really reminded me of the Zoids spin-off, Z-Knights.
We also get some major upgrades for Kira and Athrun, with the former getting the Mighty Strike Freedom Gundam and its insanely powerful “Disrupter” head-mounted beam cannon, and the latter getting Infinite Justice Gundam Type II.
There’s also a great reveal of the new Infinite Justice Gundam from within the armored shell of the Z’Gok. The latter is a bit weird if you’ve watched the original Mobile Suit Gundam, as the Z’Gok was meant as a Zeonic aquatic mobile suit, but it certainly packs a punch here.
In addition to the Z’Gok throwback, we also have the new Cavalier Afrid setup that looks like it came straight from Metal Armor Dragonar. Again, strange but most certainly welcome.
As for this new 4K release, it’s obviously visually pristine throughout. The mecha combat is really very fast, and the picture quality keeps up just fine. You also have a lot more detail on show, and the 4K resolution is very much welcome on that front.
The audio is also fantastic, but it should be noted that I only watched the movie in Japanese with English subtitles.
There aren’t really any extras for this release, but for those who have been collecting the prior Right Stuf Anime Gundam releases, that should come as no surprise.
Overall, Gundam SEED Freedom is a very bombastic and impressive finale to the Gundam SEED story, and still manages to make pertinent points on the value of self-determination amongst a great many and very shiny mecha battles.
Gundam SEED Freedom is available on 4K Blu-ray for $31.98 and can be purchased from Crunchyroll’s online store.
Disclosure: Crunchyroll sent me this Blu-ray for the purposes of this review.
Follow me on X, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and am currently writing regular columns in Japanese about mecha games and mecha anime for both Game*Spark and Automaton.
