Review #2 Mobile Suit Gundam Seed

Hajime Yatate, Del Rey; First Edition edition (April 27, 2004)

Annotation:
When Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala are young boys, they are separated by Athrun's family leavine Aube. Without thought to the future of war, Kira and Athrun part as best friends. But when Aube comes under attack by Zaft, Kira is forced to fight back in order to save his friends. Suddenly Kira's life is set into a turmoil of sadness and conflict as he realizes he is battling his best friend Athrun, while hiding from his friends his true identity as a Coordinator, a type of human despised by those he is yearning to protect.


Justification for Nomination:
The Gundam franchise has been an impact on the Youth (and adults) of Japan and subsequently worldwide since its debut in 1979 of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series. In 2008, the Gundam franchise was recognized as a 50 billion yen trademark -- that is currently roughly $62 billion dollars. Their have been millions of dollars in product sales, there is a Gundam Cafe in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan and the owners of Gundam have decided that there will never be allowed to have another built. This is significant information because the Gundam series has a huge influence on teens, both in Japan and here. This particular branch of Gundam is called Gundam Seed, originally a manga from 2004, so somewhat later in the series than other Gundam shows. As you may have guessed this is a Japanese graphic novel in the manga form, so it reads back to front.
   This is a particularly moving story because it is about two friends who are torn apart by war and the evils that go along with countries being at war. Kira and Athrun are friends as children on the neutral colony of Aube, but when Athrun joins the Zaft forces, Kira unknowingly begins to fight against him. When they realize they are fighting each other, they both struggle to try and convince the other that their cause is the correct one. However, with fighting and dying, ultimately, everyone loses. There is corruption and loss, and lost identity and tragedy in this book. Throughout the entire series it is a heart-wrenching journey that really makes you feel sympathy for the people who have been tossed into a war they never wanted, fighting their friends and losing them. I think this manga really teaches teens values of war and loss, in a sense that they don't want any of the characters to perish, because both sides represent a side of a friendship.
   There is another Gundam branch called Gundam Wing that illustrates the pointlessness of war even farther and I would encourage people to read that as well, but this series of Seed is more emotionally involved with the characters therefore I chose this one for teens to bond with more closely.