The background of the show goes something like this: It's Year 70 of the Cosmic Era. Mankind has colonized outer space and science has advanced to the point where genetic manipulation allows a superior form of man to exist. Such people are called Coordinators and are generally superior to the breeders down on Earth. As with any other different class of people in the history of mankind, tensions build between the two groups with the Coordinators thinking the unimproved humans are less able to adapt to the changing times (and they have a point) while the natural humans are of the opinion that the enhancements haven't made their counterparts all that much better (they also have a point). As jealousies flare over perceived mistreatment and a war in the near past between the groups, the Coordinator forces of a group called ZAFT, initiate hostilities on a neutral space colony called Heliopolis.

Okay, having boldly admitted to missing the first half of the series, I had the general idea of what took place by the limited exposition the characters gave from time to time but not the specifics. Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: The Empty Battlefield filled in some of the basics by showing the origin of the series hero, Kira Yamato, thrown into a large robot when his colony is attacked by rogues. Although a coordinator himself, he seeks to protect those around him as best he can, sometimes proving to be unable to keep his pledge of protection. His robot is an advanced form of mobile suit and while he likes his idyllic life, he has little choice as the events surrounding him force him into a warrior's role making him yet another reluctant combatant (an admittedly overdone stereotype in anime, the latest being a series called Fafner). The second movie picks up with about the point in time where I joined the series as antagonist Athrun Zala became Kira's main enemy, notable due to his previous friendship with the pilot. Death is all around them as the various factions attack one another, use military intelligence to seek advantage over the others and ultimately whittle the opponents to two forces (more or less of course).

With but one more movie to go in the series, I was hoping for more extra footage to make this one stand out but it suffered from the same issues Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Movie 1 had; too little new footage and too heavy an edit. In fairness to Bandai, this volume made more sense than the last one on a few levels but part of that perception would be based on my having seen much of the series from that point. I can't stress enough how this is not one of the better stand alone movies in anime since it presupposes some knowledge of what took place previously ("some"=a whole lot actually). If I commissioned you to write a cliff notes version of Moby Dick or asked you to take your favorite television series and edit down two seasons into a set of three 90 minute movies, you'd likely see the futility of the task faced by Bandai this time. Why settle for the condensed version when the entire series is now out? Heck, if anything, Bandai should offer the series as a boxed set, toss in a couple discs of extras, and lower the price point to something more affordable; now THAT would work better than these "movies" offered up in it's stead. So, while I had hoped the movies would become a good way to introduce the characters and setting to a new breed of fan, I have to sadly give this one a rating of Skip It unless you want every frame of footage from the series and a bottomless pocket to pay for it.

Picture: Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: The Far Away Dawn was presented in a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation. While this sounds great on the surface, the series was originally produced with a 1.33:1 ratio; so I ask if you prefer to have the content of a show cropped to provide a "movie looking" aspect ratio or the one it came in (I prefer the original aspect ratio in all my movies, preferring to see exactly what was offered)? The picture was very solid with lots of details, no compression artifacts, and no video noise with few other visual issues worth mentioning aside from some limitations on background movement.

Sound: The audio seemed to be the same as the series; presented with the usual two choices, a 2.0 Dolby Digital track in the original Japanese with English subtitles or the newly made English dub. I thought the voice acting on each had some merit, with slight nods to the original cast, but even the dub managed to give me a decent feel for the material. If you're a purist, you might want to at least listen to the dub, especially since the sound effects appeared to be remixed a bit in order to use the stereo aspects of the audio track more thoroughly. I also noticed the music score being somewhat richer this time on the dub, a factor noticed on a great many new releases as American companies enhance the original track to take advantage of home theatres most of us have rather than the generic speakers of the common television.

Extras: There were two trailers to televisions shows and one for the Gundam video game with no insert, cardboard add on, or anything else.

Final Thoughts: Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: The Far Away Dawn simply can't be reviewed absent a working knowledge of the Gundam Seed series and by comparison, it fails to provide the kind of experience the series was so well received for. The complexities of the characters, situations, and discourse on war in general were all shattered in favor of stringing a few battles together and a brief bit of interplay between a handful of characters. For me, that was too much to swallow when the whole show was available (in sort, would you prefer to eat a plain hotdog without a bun or a nicely cooked steak with all the trimmings; a few masochists might like the proletarian meal but regular folks would jump at the better of the two. Don't sell the material short and settle for the edited versions; get the real deal!

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVDTalk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003 and Best Of Anime 2004 article or regular column Anime Talk.