~Zucreelowon Contest01ate with entry Darkzone Datin' and gets a rant page (ok some of you might think it's stupid but just ranting or talking to yourself in general tends to clear up clattered thoughts). ~Andou-Mahoro

Firstly, thanks much to Andou for organising this contest that’s at long last concluded… and for being the only other contender for the prize. Come on guys! The next contest has to get a bigger turnout – we all can do it, just submit something to make it more involving and fun and BIG! X3 You don’t have to make it a masterpiece, or delay until you practically forget about it… and although I followed the latter myself, it’s not like we all have to this time!

Okaii, so having won the right to decide on the subject of the next contest, I declare that the new theme will be… Kids. Bend that anyway you want, but I felt it’d be suitable seeing that Cagalli and Kira’s birthday’s approaching to try and do something with them as their younger selves. Or you can go in the other direction and portray the future offspring of your favourite Cagalli pairing *coughasucagacough*. =3

So then… a rantpage as my contest prize! I’m not in a very ranty mood today (sorry, Meyrin haters) so I guess the only fitting thing to do is sum up how exactly I got so hooked on the SEED series and how it changed me into what I am. That begs the question: what first caught my eye about the series? And to that I’ll answer:

One busty, female pink-headed popstar.

Boy, now wasn’t that unexpected? Not to mention attention grabbing.

Admittedly, this was in fact what first drew me to Gundam SEED Destiny – not Cagalli, but the image of Meer Campbell posing in an extremely evocative way across the glossy cover of a Thai-language dubbed VCD, in some random stall somewhere in a shopping mall in Bangkok. O,O

No, I wasn’t initially thinking to find anything typically lurid inside – I was thirteen and yet to know what anime even was (though I’d grown up on a funny blend of Doraemon and Sailor Moon as a preschooler, I didn’t make the connection until way later), never mind the H-genre. But I was hunting for something to spend the gift money from my Thai relatives on, and decided on the basis of a decidedly attractive and unfamiliar art-style, a blurred memory of the Gundam franchise being somewhat ‘good’, and the crazy horde of ZAKU and Freedom models sweeping the toy sections of every bloody shopping centre in the country, that this was it.

It went on to be one of the best decisions I ever made.

Now before you all start ploughing into me with your virtual beam-swords and such about my adulation of the much-hated Destiny sequel, hear this: I speak as a guy who’s not seen any of the original series. Because of that I have nothing to compare it with, but of course if I love this series this much then you’d think I’d fawn over the first one even more so. Most of you would wonder why I watched them in reverse. I answer… I dunno! Back when I bought the first Meer disc I had no idea it was a sequel, and now I guess I’m just too… lazy. In fact I haven’t even finished all the Phases – I got up to 40-something where the Akatsuki appears, and then never got around to finishing. O,O Maybe next holidays…

Of course I quickly got over Meer, even if she’s still awesome in my book, along with half the other characters I love for different reasons. But there’s so much more to GSD that made it such a favourite, not merely because it was my sentimental first.

There’s the broad universal themes and heavy morals that were rare in other series I’d seen previously, like the crapness of war (even though the MS fights are insanely fun to watch), the destructive evils of racism and the ethics of genetic engineering involved in the division of society into those races (Coordinators and Naturals do pretty much equate to races, I’m sure). Then we got all those intricate character plots and relationships that make the story gripping on the finer bases as well. It’s all well to be shocked by the ruthless suppression of the escaping civilians in a work camp, and then to cheer for them when some rogue enemy soldier decides to set them free, but put a face on that guy, call him Shinn Asuka and make him get bitch-slapped by his commanding officer for disobedience, and that’s entertainment.

Whilst we’re on characters, we have of course, Cagalli, who struck me immediately as awesome after I got my hands on the first episode and quickly became my favourite female character. What can I say? She’s immensely strong-willed and dedicated in her job, handling the weight of an entire country’s politics at only 18; a passionate speaker and defender of her cause and beliefs; and not to mention, incredibly cute without even having to try. ^^ Ideally I’m only ratting off the list you all already have in your heads – it should be quite plain why she’s so awesome.

I quickly became a big fan of Athrun as well, and from the obvious chemistry right from the start I was sure, even without seeing the exposition in the first series, that they were the perfect couple and destined to be together at the end. I failed though to see the fatal mistake he made in leaving Cagalli, and so while I happily watched him take command of the Minerva crew as their perfect captain, I was perplexed when I saw Cagalli pushed around by the Seirans and bullied into a marriage. It just didn’t click that Athrun by her side was what she really needed to survive, that she was there way before Shinn and the others and that he should’ve seen to her as first priority. In leaving Athrun cost himself not only Cagalli, but also the world the whole bloody mess with the Orb-Earth Alliance – if he didn’t go then half the damn bloodshed of the war might’ve been averted!

I missed out a fair bit from missing the original SEED, it would seem. Or maybe it’s my kindergarten-level grasp of my first language and my discs being dubbed in Thai that confused the hell out of me (which was done by what sounded like a voice crew of about two or four people, I might add, and fortunately Cagalli’s voice was done rather well; on the other hand, Athrun and half the other guys sounded like weirdo old perverts).

Either way, Andou was all too happy to fix my misconception a few months back. And like her and many of you I’d assume I would’ve loved for the two to be together at the end. But it wasn’t to be. Yet even without having Cagalli and Athrun’s relationship rooted in GS like most of you would’ve, I still saw them as the ideal match; I don’t see at all how Meyrin fits in. She’s just some happy fangirl who happens to be on the same ship he is and ends up saving his arse. That’s a good excuse to drop everything and make sweet with them? To hell! It’s corny and clichéd! As if sane people fall for their doctors in real life anyway! ‘course I’m ignoring the fact that Athrun already screwed things up long before, but at least he could’ve tried to make ends meet with Cagalli again! Damn Meyrin, she should go make out with Yolant and Vino back on the Minerva or something, thass right!

…

O,O Well… I guess I did slightly go off at Meyrin a bit. Not nearly as rigorously as some of you more HC AsuCaga defenders out there would like, of course. Let’s keep it that way. ^^

What else is there about GSD that makes it so riveting right from the get-go? The music. Yes, it was perhaps half due to the presence of PRIDE, by HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR, in the opening theme of Phase 19, the first I watched, that struck such a chord with me. It was the clip that started me onto J-Rock and J-Pop, and I’ve been musing to them ever since. Not just the openings and ends or insert songs, but the beautiful overworld themes. They’re immediately recognisable and a joy always: the sweeping nostalgic piano-ballad of peacetime, the thunderous upbeat fanfare foreshadowing the Impulse’ launch, the sad requiem resonating in horns and strings that emerges each time the desolation of war is shown. And who could forget? The annoying light, bouncy little jingle that plays every time Meer wreaks havoc.

The other half? Easily, the Art style of the legendary Hisashi Hirai.

Okay, to me the art style of the GSD has been the most gorgeous I’ve ever laid eyes on, and that’s probably what struck me the first, what made me want to buy the Meer-adorned disc in the first place. The Mobile Suits of course are cool enough – the show wouldn’t be the same with crappy blocky junkyard robots that my seven-year-old brother could’ve drawn, or even, in a more flattering way, the decidedly cool Transformers in many a person’s book that just aren’t as elegant and cool-looking as the Freedom, GOUF Ignited and their co-stars – but they’re amazing in all of the Gundam series; it’s the character designs that are really definitive of the SEEDs. Hisashi Hirai’s designs and style simply are the best ever in this series and its original. Seeing the characters appear in all their glory in pairs as the opening theme PRIDE played for the first time in my ears practically made me decide pretty much there and then one thing.

I wanted to draw like that.

Thus began my re-ignited passion for art, turning from the stickmen and dragons of my youth to anime style, and with it came my interest in the other series of the broad umbrella-term. Elfen Lied, Chrono Crusade, Cowboy Bebop, and the magnificent Miyazaki works like Howl’s Moving Castle among others – they also became great favourites of mine, and I even enjoyed some of Hirai’s other series like s-CRY-ed or Heroic Age. But none struck my imagination like GS/D. And so I drew from it, not just the art but also the music and the emotions they conjured up, the broad themes and gripping character relationships, to try and finally make my childhood dream come true.

My dream? Ever since I was around seven I’d wanted to create my own universe and its stories, funnel it into something and publish it for all others to enjoy. I’d began with writing and illustrating tiny picture books, but as I began to drop hopes of drawing it as my stories became less beasts of fantasy and more humans of reality, which I always found insanely hard to draw in comparison to the former. I stuck to writing, and I continue to this day. But finding this gem of a series back in 2004 opened to me the possibility of finally being able to depict people. So I sought out anime-style, with Hirai’s in particular, and with my mate Winson as my mentor from ’06 have been learning ever since. I one day hope to at the very least publish my set of novels, of my Tracid Tale, and intwine within them the scenes of their characters depicted in my own solid, established, Hirai-influenced artwork at last.

Well thankyou all for reading this, if you actually got this far – I hope you enjoyed it somewhat. Whatever your dreams may be, follow them to their fullest – if your heart is true in them then there’s no real obstacle but yourself in reaching that goal. I’ll just be happy in finding Gundam SEED Destiny to help me along my way. XP