GundamReviews

Gundam SEED MSV ASTRAY: Red Frame

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Summary

In space, the Junk Guild ship HOME prepares to descend to Earth. Lowe Guele is excited about visiting Earth, and Kisato Yamabuki hopes to buy lots of items. Liam Garfield says he doesn’t like Earth’s gravitational pull, and the hung over Professor complains that going to Earth is bad for the body. One Earth, a secret auction is held for surplus ZAFT mobile suits. One of the items on display is the Aegis Gundam‘s shield. Lowe is especially impressed by the next item: the head from a BuCUE Tactical Reconnaissance Type. He is surprised that ZAFT has beam weaponry and wants to buy it, but Kisato tells him the Gundam Astray Red Frame already has beam weapons. Lowe explains that he wants to buy it because it’s from ZAFT and might be different. After the auction, Lowe connects the BuCUE head to the Red Frame’s right hand activates the double-edged beam saber. He then jumps into his cockpit and decrypts some classified surveillance data on the Earth Alliance mobile suit Sword Calamity. Liam doesn’t think they should get involved, and the Professor wants to copy the data before deleting the original file. Suddenly, a CGUE on a Guul appears and attacks. Lowe uses the BuCUE head as a makeshift staff and slices the CGUE apart without killing the pilot. Three more CGUEs appear, and Lowe takes off to lead them away. Ahead of him, a CGUE DEEP Arms piloted by Shiho Hahnenfuss attacks him with its beam rifles. Lowe flies through the auction field while trying to dodge Shiho. He leads her into an old city and ejects two parts from his flight pack, but Shiho continues her pursuit. Lowe then has the flight pack fly by itself to distract Shiho while he slices her Guul apart with his Gerbera Straight. He then flies away and realizes he forgot to pick up the expensive BuCUE head.

Commentary

While this OVA is in essence a six minute commercial, it’s very well made and entertaining nonetheless. I’ve always been interested in the ASTRAY stories and characters, and it’s nice to see them finally animated. One of the things that appeals to me about ASTRAY is that it doesn’t take itself as seriously as its big brother series, and it’s all the more enjoyable for it. This short features a nice battle sequence, along with some fanservice of the exposed Professor. Of course, a lot of the showcased mecha are from SEED MSV, which these promos are supposed to advertise. It’s really a shame that there’s only two OVA clips for ASTRAY, because it certainly deserves to be a full length OVA series.

No Rating
0/5
Gundam SEED MSV ASTRAY Info


Director:
Katsuyoshi Yatabe

Writer:
Tomohiro Chiba

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

Character Designer:
Yooichi Ueda

Musical Composer:
N/A

Format:
2 shorts

Video Release:
Japan 11.24.2006

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