
The fire escape scene was well done, and some of her early stuff wasn't bad. While it would have been good if they had developed that more, in most cases it felt like they were trying to cram her in. Personally I find it hard to relate with an unlikeable character thats one small step away from turning into a full blown serial killer. Shinji, I mean Shinn, merely goes from angsty and unlikeable with creepy little sister issues, to angsty and unlikeable with sociopathic issues. Athrun goes through pretty much exactly the same development he went through in SEED, making me wonder why they bothered (either of the other 2 surviving ZAFT piolots would have made the series more interesting while filling a similar role). There are 3 characters they try to develop, Athrun (returning) Shinn (new), and Meer (new). If you can tolerate that, add 2-3 points, because the animation is decent.

When you add those up, you've got 5-8 min of recycled footage per 20-25 min episode. Add in the standard complaint of recycled battle footage the Gundam name is notorious for. Combine that with a dorky put-the-pieces-togather style mech that recycles footage every time it's deployed.

I'd say a good 10-15% (if not more) of the series is flashbacks taken directly from Gundam SEED. Maybe this is just bias on my part, but Mechs do NOT belong in soap operas. Throw in a 'twist' invovlving amnesia, and you've got the recipe for every soap opera out there.

The story is a weak copy of Gundam SEED (which was a pretty decent reworking of Gundam Wing's story). Contains spoilers (if you can spoil trash)
