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Gundam SEED Phase 11: The Awakening Sword

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Summary

On the Archangel, a hearing is held with Murrue as judge, Natarle as prosecutor and Mu defending Kira. Natarle lists all the military rules that Kira violated and says that he placed the ship in great jeopardy. Mu points out that it’s against the Alliance’s laws to use civilians as hostages, but Natarle mentions an exception to those laws. Murrue announces her decision and says that the punishment for Kira’s crime is execution. He is shocked, and she says that that sort of punishment is used only for military personnel and can’t be applied to a civilian. She asks him to think deeply about his actions, and Mu advises him to do nothing out of line from now on. Outside of Murrue’s quarters, Sai and Miriallia tell Kira they were assigned a week of toilet duty for what they did, and Mu overhears and assigns Kira to the toilets too. As they walk through the corridors, Sai tells Kira what Kuzzey overheard before, and Kira is surprised that they know now. Flay overhears what Sai says but is unseen as they pass by. On the Gamow, Yzak, Dearka and Nicol plan their next move. If they attack the Archangel, they only have ten minutes before it joins the Alliance’s 8th Fleet. Nicol is worried by that small window of attack, and Yzak calls him a coward. Yzak and Dearka view the situation as providing them a “full 10 minutes,” rather than “just 10 minutes.” Yzak asks everyone if they are ready to attack, and the three agree. On the Vesalius, Haro bounces through the corridors and slams into Athrun. Athrun tells Lacus that even though she’s a guest, she needs to stay in her room. He asks her how she felt about being a hostage, and she tells him that Kira treated her well. She says that Kira is nice and is strong, but Athrun thinks he’s an idiot for letting Naturals use him. He says that Kira is only using his friends as an excuse and is with Naturals because his parents aren’t Coordinators. Lacus tells Athrun that he seems sadder these days, and he says that he can’t fight a war with a smile on his face. In the Archangel‘s mess hall, Sai and Kuzzey wonder what will happen when they meet the 8th Fleet and if they can leave. Kuzzey remembers Murrue telling them on Heliopolis they’d have to stay with her for seeing military secrets. Kira then walks into the cafeteria, followed by Flay.

Sai tells Flay she should be resting, but she says she is ok. She walks over to Kira and apologizes to him. She tells him that she was in a panic and said things she shouldn’t have. She says she understands that he is fighting hard to protect everyone, and he thanks her. Pal reports to Murrue that radar is being jammed, and she orders battle stations when the Duel Gundam, Buster Gundam and Blitz Gundam are detected on sensors. Kira bumps into a little girl named Elle in the hallway, but Flay goes over to help him. She tells Elle that Kira will defeat all the bad guys and squeezes her hand very tightly. Mu launches in the Moebius Zero, followed by Kira in the Aile Strike Gundam. The three Gundams fly in formation to cover the fact that the Gamow is about to fire its cannons. The Gamow fires and hits the Archangel. Mu attacks Dearka while Kira engages Yzak and Nicol attacks the Archangel. Nicol uses the Blitz Gundam’s Mirage Colloid to go invisible and hide as he attacks. Natarle figures out how to fight him by shooting at the point of origin where his shots are coming from. Mu attacks Dearka with his weapon pods, but they do no damage to the Buster Gundam. Kira dodges Yzak’s attacks, and the two pull out their beam sabers and begin fighting in close range. Yzak tells Kira that he’s good but won’t get away today. The Gamow fires at the Archangel again, and Nicol lands on the ship’s hull and begins attacking. Miriallia calls Kira and tells him they are in danger because the Blitz Gundam is too close to the bridge. Kira thinks about the destruction of the Montgomery and sees the image of a seed bursting in his head. His eyes turn black, and he suddenly out-maneuvers Yzak and slices into the Duel Gundam’s torso with his beam saber. He flies back towards the Archangel with Yzak in hot pursuit. Kira lands on the ship’s hull and kicks Nicol away. Yzak tries to swoop in with his beam saber, but Kira pulls out his combat knife and slices into the Duel Gundam’s damaged torso. An explosion occurs in the cockpit, and Nicol takes Yzak away as the Alliance’s 8th Fleet approaches. In his cockpit, Yzak clutches his hands over his wounded, bloody eye. In her room, Flay says to herself that Kira must beat all the bad guys if the war is to ever end.

Commentary

We get some action in this episode, courtesy of the three ZAFT Gundam pilots. These guys constantly attack and never manage to really do much damage. Yzak is incredibly one-dimensional with his desire to beat Kira at any cost. That’s going to change now that Kira has injured him. Now Yzak has a real reason to want to fight Kira. Kira goes into what can only be described as a “SEED mode,” and that serves to at least somewhat explain the title of the series. He seems to go into a berserker rage and becomes a much better pilot after seeing the SEED. Finally, what’s with Flay? Though she apologizes to Kira, the angles at which she is shown suggest she is some kind of madwoman now. We’ll see soon enough.

Overall Rating
3.5/5
Gundam SEED Info


Director:
Mitsuo Fukuda

Writer(s):
Chiaki Morosawa
Hiroyuki Yoshino
Hiroshi Ohnogi
Shigeru Morita
Akinori Endo
Yuuichi Nomura
Akemi Omode

Mechanical Designer(s):
Kunio Okawara
Kimitoshi Yamane
Junichi Akutsu

Character Designer:
Hisashi Hirai

Musical Composer:
Toshihiko Sahashi

Format:
50 episodes (original); 48 episodes (HD); 1 short; 3 compilation movies

Airdates (Original):
Japan 10.05.2002 – 09.27.2003
U.S. 04.17.2004 – 04.15.2005

Airdates (HD Remaster):
Japan 01.xx.2012 – 11.xx.2012

Video Release (SE):
Japan 08.27.2004 – 10.22.2004
U.S. 07.11.2005 – 11.22.2005

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