The Gundam SEED Destiny HD Remaster Thread

[AGF-Antoine]

Spoiler

Not to start the previous useless discussion again, but didn't Librarian Works in the manga say their main goal was removing Lacus and Cagalli from their positions due to lacking the proper experience? There are some other hints, for example:
The gap between the manga used units Regen Duel, Hail Buster, Nebula Blitz, Gale Strike ---> Nix Providence ---> Vent Saviour.
Stella's VA also originally said she would have a role in the SEED Movie, Carbon Human clone piloting Librarian-i-fied Gaia perhaps?
Ofcourse, keep in mind this is purely my theoretical hypothesis about what the SEED Movie would be about. But due to the tie-in and clear main goal of Librarian Works (and the shown super advanced tech they have). It would be the most logical enemy for the sequel movie that will hopefully finally be made after the Destiny Remaster.

Now about my actual expectations of the HD Remaster.
The promo already showed that the Gunner ZAKU Warrior of Dearka is now already in the colors of his later Blaze ZAKU Phantom, which is a nice detail in my opinion.

I surely hope the HD Remaster will give some more footage to Saviour Gundam, since it just randomly transforming all the time was just stupid.
I love Thundermuffin's explanation of this:

TALIA: Dammit, where is Athrun???

ARTHUR: Uh, Savior is a mile or so behind us. It appears to be doing barrel rolls and randomly transforming back and forth between modes.

(Cut to Athrun in Savior.)

ATHRUN: Wheeee! Lookit me!

Aside from that I wonder if they will put Destiny Impulse in it, much like Perfect Strike in the SEED HD Remaster.
Ofcourse one shouldn't expect them even attempting to fix the lackluster storyline, that would involve so much changes that both the effort and monetary funds of the project wouldn't be able to cover it.

Actually my biggest hope for the project is finally getting a HG Blast Impulse and HG Slash ZAKU Phantom, but considering what they did with Perfect Strike, it would probably just be adding the NG packs to the HG base molds.


AGF-Antoine

[E08]

Spoiler

Not to start the previous useless discussion again, but didn't Librarian Works in the manga say their main goal was removing Lacus and Cagalli from their positions due to lacking the proper experience? There are some other hints, for example:
The gap between the manga used units Regen Duel, Hail Buster, Nebular Blitz, Gale Strike ---> Nix Providence ---> Vent Saviour.
Stella's VA also originally said she would have a role in the SEED Movie, Carbon Human clone piloting Librarian-i-fied Gaia perhaps?
Ofcourse, keep in mind this is purely my theoretical hypothesis about what the SEED Movie would be about. But due to the tie-in and clear main goal of Librarian Works (and the shown super advanced tech they have). It would be the most logical enemy for the sequel movie that will hopefully finally be made after the Destiny Remaster.

Did you happen to read those stuff from wiki? For the main series, wiki may still be ok but the sidestories are quite often another story.... As for your second question, the story did not elaborate much but the gap seems to be due to difficulty in collecting MS data.

Aside from that I wonder if they will put Destiny Impulse in it, much like Perfect Strike in the SEED HD Remaster.

Possible for cameo appearance but unlikely to be piloted by Shinn or lunamaria due to energy issues. Unless they want to try playing around with the mysterious Destiny Impulse unit 4 mentioned in the MSV profile and implied in the MG manual.

[AGF-Antoine]

Did you happen to read those stuff from wiki? For the main series, wiki may still be ok but the sidestories are quite often another story.... As for your second question, the story did not elaborate much but the gap seems to be due to difficulty in collecting MS data.

I'm afraid so, and yes I am aware of the reliability of the wikia, or more rather, the lack there of.
But I thought I read the Stella thingy on AnimeNewsNetwork, but upon checking that, it seems to not be the case. On the case of their main goal, I thought the wikia would at least know that much.
I would be very interested in knowing their true goal. But the point of them being an enemy organisation after Destiny's storyline stills stands.

Possible for cameo appearance but unlikely to be piloted by Shinn or lunamaria due to energy issues. Unless they want to try playing around with the mysterious Destiny Impulse unit 4 mentioned in the MSV profile and implied in the MG manual.

Yea, I was more thinking along the lines of just piloting it for a little bit.
Without using the Wings of Light to much, obviously.
And ofcourse there is always the chance of a Nuclear Engine + N-Jammer Cancellor being installed.
Marketing-wise it would be smart, and we all know Bandai is pro-marketing more then anything else.


AGF-Antoine

[monster]

Caridad's article which says that she is Via Hibiki's (Kira's biological mother) sister and that she spirited away Cagalli and Kira from the Al da Flaga mansion right before Rau burned it down.

In addition to the fact that I have never once before in all these years heard that Via and Caridad were related (I had always assumed that caridad and Haruma were just selected by Uzumi to take care of Kira),

According to the old GundamOfficial's timeline, Kira and Cagalli's mother gave them to Caridad and Haruma (mentioned as her sister and bother-in-law) at Mendel when the research institute at Mendel was attacked by terrorist in C.E. 55, 13 years before Mendel was finally abandoned.

I doubt the children would have anything to do with Al Da Flaga, let alone be at his house.

I also begin to wonder who exactly is Caridad Yamato that she could meet with the leader of her country about such an issue?

Uzumi became chief representative of Orb in C.E. 58, and he might have (randomly) adopted Cagalli as heir in preparation for that.

I even begin to wonder why they bothered to separate the children.

It's probably to hide the fact that the twins survived. Also, if Kira was ever targeted, at least Cagalli would have a chance at a better life.

[Xenosynth]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiMfZpBS_rU

And episode one is up.

[Amion]

EDIT after watching.

Now, it looks like episode one is pretty much the same. I think I noticed some quirks in the overall battle that were a little more umph-ish but not much else. Remaster doodling aside, this episode reminds me why I loved the first four episodes of Destiny so much.

Actually, I think I enjoy this beginning episode more than any other, as far as sequels go. Unlike Zeta or (Gasp) ZZ, this episode manages to not only advance plot while providing action, but showcases two familiar characters of the old cast while not ignoring the new, particularly Stella and Durandel.

Too bad this whole four episode arc is the only good one, but for that reason alone I plan to enjoy it. Honestly though, it isn't until we all know who step back into the limelight that things go horribly wrong.

One thing that bothered me for this episode was Athrun and Stella. He looks at her as if he knows something is up with her. That, or he was intrigued by her more endowed similarity with Cagalli, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

And Durandel's smug face when he was watching the Sword Impulse transform struck me for the first time, I don't remember that scene from my previous viewing. Ah, something new I guess. And Ray's look as he looked at his trapped Zaku had a Rauish aspect. Nice touch, I think that was old, but it had some new life into this time.

Well here we are folks, Destiny returns. Now if only Thundermuffin will, it's time to see what became of poor Amuro's attempt at preventing it.

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

I find it darkly amusing that the Youtube video has a giant Gunpla commercial after the episode. That RG Freedom looks pretty damn awesome though.

And it's still weird to hear Char's and Frontal's voice coming out of Durandal's mouth. Someone needs to make a picture of Durandal sitting in a YF-29 Durandal from Macross Frontier.

[LightningCount]

I noticed a few possibly new things just from skimming; I'll watch the whole thing later.

Seems there's new establishing/aftermath shots of Shinn's family to emphasize Shinn's pain/anger. The opening has new images of Lunamaria and Rey. They slapped up words over charcaters and mecha in the opening. Gaia Gundam has a new transformation sequence during its debut battle. (What's not clear to me, and what's confusing, is that I can't tell if they've used much of the new animation from Destiny Special Edition or not. Maybe it was there for Alex's ZAKU?).

Anyway, Gundam SEED Destiny has one of the best group of opening episodes in Gundam, IMO. Honestly, despite the fact that it sort of crumbles on itself due to rushed pacing and animation issues in latter episodes (starting mid to late 30s), I find this to be a fairly entertaining entry in Gundam with some very memorable battle choreography, dialogue, characters, themes, and basic plot setup. Durandal is second maybe only to Treize as far as fascinating schemers, and Shinn, for all of his haters, is captivating for how raw and bold his emotions are. Whether you agree with him or not, he makes for a compelling character/anti-hero. Personally, as a whole, I find it a significantly more enjoyable "sequel" than 00 Season 2 was to 00 Season 1. I'm not too cynical about this; I'm actually looking forward to seeing what the HD version changes. It doesn't look like they went overboard like they did in SEED, changing every other face design, which is nice.

Personally, between this and the new manga, I do think this may be leading up to a concluding CE chapter via the long-delayed Movie. We'll see.

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

OK here are my own impressions of this first episode. Part of this is because I was young and foolish back in 2005 and I ragequit the show, so this is the first time I've watched it all the way through.

The OP isn't too bad but what's with all the kinda-sorta nudity? It's like the reverse of nipples on the Batsuit. The first part of the episode is pretty good, what with the death of Shinn's family. Is that the way they originally presented it, with Calamity opening fire, then Freedom fires and then BOOM, dead family? Poor Shinn.

Unfortunately, everything else fails to grip me. It's pretty much the same as the first episode of SEED, except the roles are reversed. This time, it's the Alliance that's doing the stealing from ZAFT with the minor difference that the Impulse was already on the Minerva. At least Shinn had already signed his enlistment papers.
Cagalli unfortunately comes off sounding hypocritical. I don't think she has a leg to stand on to lecture others on the dangers of advanced military technology, considering that ORB just built their next-generation transforming Mobile Suits and has the rebuilt Freedom Gundam and the Archangel hidden away on their island. *sigh* The degradation begins.

And Destiny better than 00 Season 2? (scratches head in confusion) Whatever floats your boat my friend.

[Amion]

I should mention that Shinn in my book, gets a better intro than any other main character in Gundam. He rushes in at the end of the episode to save the day like he's supposed to and shows off his badass double bladed Gundam. Seriously, I always liked the Impulse over the Strike, who's packs were always kinda skimpy and more choppy than the more streamlined Impulse.

Too bad the Destiny Gundam is coming.

At Arbiter: I originally agreed with you, but upon watching the show again, I don't feel as I used to. Here's why...

For one, recall that Durandel basically tells Cagalli what you just said about her. And he even gives us a reason, the Sayrans (how are they spelled? No time for google) are all for the Alliance, so it's basically the Alliance putting pressure on Orb to talk to its Zaft buddies about their new goodies Durandel's been building. Cagalli didn't want to be there in the beginning to start with, from what I've gathered. (and this would also count for the first trace of her terminal Destiny fever she is going to suffer from)

And then there's the jack itself. Honestly, this is the best done Gundamjack in the series. Seed comes close, but doesn't have the sense of surprise or swift execution the Extendeds bring. And the overall political atmosphere is far different from SEED, which did no such thing and only had a few characters of minor influence like Natarle running around. And remember that Zeta has a Gundam heist too, only it doesn't even give us the main schemer either. Honestly, the only thing I hate about this episode is the animation issues, but those can be forgotten if the story interests me well enough. Which, sadly, will not be doing so for much longer...

[ShadowCell]

i'm willing to give DESTINY a pass on the idea that Cagalli is out of her league when it comes to politics. in SEED she was never one for subtlety and manipulation, especially not the sort required for success in politics. and, really, how many 18-year-olds do you know that can wheel and deal with seasoned politicians and treacherous schemers? so, yeah, hypocrisy for whining about ZAFT's military buildup while Orb conducts its own, pressure from politicians forcing her to do things she doesn't necessarily want to do, fine, i can live with that.

the problem is that she never really gets out of that rut, so a character that used to be active (if not effective) becomes passive, but that's later down the road.

[azrael]

From what I recall of the original airing, they updated Gaia's transformation sequence and action shots. Impulse's launch looks like it got a perspective update to make the Silhouette flyer bigger. The Armory-One scene feels like it got an update, and probably a much needed one. They added the Latin to Chaos' forehead, which you can see clearly now. I think they incorporated the Special Edition intro scene that ties the Orb commander to Shinn. That should take care of that link. It also feels like they cleaned up Impulse's debut in this episode. It feels like they also gave it an extra minute of animation too (vs. the original TV airing).

Again, I'm not looking or expecting any big change in story compared to the TV series and the Special Editions except for combining the 2. I'm hoping they cleaned up and fix a lot of animation issues that came up through the original airing.

I'll wait for someone to do a screen comparison of the 2 to be sure.

[LightningCount]

And Destiny better than 00 Season 2? (scratches head in confusion) Whatever floats your boat my friend.

Exactly. And my boat's afloat. After the sense of sophistication, grounding, and scope of 00 Season 1, 00 Season 2, by and large, gave us a "run around in circles against a manipulating band of self-centered, androgynous, colored haired clones" as its main plot point. Very little politics, very little philosophy, and a lot of uninspired developments, IMO. Destiny has a lot of flaws, especially in its final quarter, but it didn't feel as boring on the whole to me. I'm not saying Destiny is pure gold by any means, but I found more redeeming factors in it than I did 00 Season 2. At least, that's been my opinion. It could change in the future perhaps. But as you said, whatever floats one's boat.

EDIT: I really don't mean to rain on any parades. Perhaps I was too harsh-sounding, and perhaps that's because of all the noise surrounding Destiny. I'm just talking about my own experience. I'm just going to enjoy Destiny HD for what it is. I mean, what's done is done, both with 00 Season 2 and Destiny.

[HellCat]

I think the new shots of Rey and Luna in the OP were pulled from Phase Impulse, an exclusive Fukuda directed clip you got to download if you bought MG Force Impulse.

One thing this episode didn't change my mind on- the Asuka's dying is Mayu's fault. I'm sorry but when you're running for your life you don't stop and whinge that you lost your phone. I know Destiny predates such technology but nowadays we have stuff like Cloud where your data is backed up externally for situations like this (phone losing, not family slaughter). Heck, Shinn's mum sounds like she wants to slap Mayu one for being so dense.

I never cared for the pretentious waffle in CE 'Next Episode' segments either. I know alot of Japanese shows do this but SEED and Destiny just seem very guilty.

[latenlazy]

I think the new shots of Rey and Luna in the OP were pulled from Phase Impulse, an exclusive Fukuda directed clip you got to download if you bought MG Force Impulse.

One thing this episode didn't change my mind on- the Asuka's dying is Mayu's fault. I'm sorry but when you're running for your life you don't stop and whinge that you lost your phone. I know Destiny predates such technology but nowadays we have stuff like Cloud where your data is backed up externally for situations like this (phone losing, not family slaughter). Heck, Shinn's mum sounds like she wants to slap Mayu one for being so dense.

I never cared for the pretentious waffle in CE 'Next Episode' segments either. I know alot of Japanese shows do this but SEED and Destiny just seem very guilty.

Kids will be kids. Some people adapt to the run for your life war zone problem more quickly than others. Kids maybe don't adapt as well to it. Most people would blame the war zone, not the kid

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

Gundam Guy has their usual list of comparison shots up. Looks like the footage has a lot more sharpness and clarity but that's pretty much what they did for SEED, right?

[AGF-Antoine]

Well, they did fix my biggest gripe with the original OP:
The MS not being lined up/alligned with the proper pilots.

Also love the recoloring detail on Dearka's Gunner ZAKU Warrior again.

And on many scenes they expanded the background, allowing the MS to be shown more properly.
(shown most notably on the Freedom VS Force Impulse melee clash)


AGF-Antoine

[Silver_August]

I watch it...and like from what I saw with Seed that urked me, the "Remastering" for wide screen half the time seems to amount little more then zooming in and cutting off what we originally saw and just making shots...odd to me, Headroom is for the weak it seems!

Though I do find it amusing that in the opening, of all the shots NOT to suffer from a case of the Zoom-in's its the Naked-Space segments, the comparisons showed both with Lacus and Stella they at least got away with covering where we'd see the naughty nipple, but now they actually EXPAND the shots and not even try at all to cover up the breasts? I dunno how censorship works in japan, or if it matters for whenever Destiny airs in japan but are you allowed to get away with showing the full on breast if it doesn't have the nips? Just....that intrigued me...of all the shots to get expanded and show more of what we originally had...

I do like the colors though, background scenery looks especially nice...its no wonder the show for the time was animated horribly, you try having beautiful looking art animate fluently on a weekly basis! You'd change your main character mid series too! lol i kid.

I might try to keep up with Destiny HD, if only to relive the series and remember how exactly things went wrong...and maybe see a Blue Frame 2nd L cameo since that's coming out in HG and they need a plug for that of course!

Eh this brings back memories of listening to the Gundamn! when they reviewed Destiny, still probably my favorite episode, long live Kira and his ship of Super Friends!

[Dangerous_D]

I'm kinda wondering why they even bothered doing an HD remake for Seed D, the last episode was awful, they had to do a makeshift remake of the final episode which was a little better, I wouldn't mind getting Seed HD Remaster if they dubbed it and released it in the US

[Gundam420]

They'll most likely cut out the clips shows and put in the Final Plus ending.