“This is the day we send that ship to hell.” Neo Roanoake, preparing to destroy the Minerva.

Angry young ace Gundam pilot Shinn Asuka realizes that Stella, the girl he has fallen for, is not only an enemy pilot, she is also one of the ‘Extended’. What’s more, she is almost certainly a product of the abandoned laboratory that he and Rey discovered in which horrific experiments had been carried out on children. Her personality and memories altered, Stella doesn’t even recognize Shinn at first, calling out desperately for ‘Neo’. Deprived of the drugs that control her behaviour, she swiftly becomes hysterical and has to be restrained in sickbay.

Lacus Clyne sets out on a bold and dangerous mission to the Plants to try to find out what’s really happening up in space. This is particularly risky as her impersonator, Meer Campbell, soon realizes that the real Lacus is uncomfortably close at hand.

Matters are hotting up on earth as Blue Cosmos, with power-crazed Lord Jibril in charge, orders Neo to destroy the Minerva. Lord Yuna drags the increasingly reluctant forces of Orb into the conflict. Cagalli is distraught when she hears what her countrymen are doing and the Archangel sets out to the rescue. A bitter battle ensues and the Minerva, under fire from all sides, is placed in grave danger. Cagalli takes to the skies in her mobile suit and implores the Orb forces to withdraw, endangering her life and provoking an unexpected result.

The strangest (though oddly effective and revealing) filler episode occurs in ‘Fates’, Phase 29, which shows Chairman Gilbert Durandal pondering the events that have occurred (going way back to ‘Gundam Seed’) as he plays a game of chess with a ghostly evocation of his friend Rau le Creuset.

Meanwhile, back on earth, Shinn overhears the Minerva’s doctor discussing Stella’s condition with Captain Gladys. Realizing that Stella’s health is rapidly deteriorating, Shinn determines to take her back to the Earth Alliance so that she can be given the drugs she has become dependent on. With Rey Za Burrel’s help, he defies orders and sets out to try to save Stella’s life. But has his love for the fragile and broken girl blinded him to the realities of the situation? And what consequences may arise from such a rash action?

Thirty episodes in and ‘Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny’ has become a little too reliant on flashbacks where greater depth of characterization is called for to sustain the viewer’s interest. The first couple of times we’re shown Stella dancing on the cliffs, Shinn rescuing Stella from the sea and the young couple drying off, naked, side by side etc. etc., the flashback is affecting and effective. But to keep harking back to that moment loses the magic and eventually becomes tedious because it begins to seem like nothing more than a cheap filler. Thirty episodes in to another mobile suit series, ‘Eureka 7’, and the plot is racing along, with many new revelations about characters. By contrast, ‘Gundam Seed Destiny’ seems to be marking time – although maybe a kinder way to put it would be to say that the ground is being prepared for a far greater conflict to come.

I’m still far from enamoured of the character designs by Hisashi Hirai (‘Fafner’ and ‘s-CRY-ed’); it can be really difficult to tell the characters apart sometimes (repeat after me: Shinn has brown eyes, Athrun has green) and the faces are often expressionless and doll-like. However, Toshihiko Sahashi’s stirring orchestral score makes up for many of the visual deficiencies, expertly underscoring the action scenes and heightening tension.

‘Gundam Seed Destiny’s’ heart is in the right place: war is wrong, the politicians who start wars are usually not the ones who have to put their lives on the line, etc. But it only works if the viewer’s attention is fully engaged and, several times in this volume, I confess that I found myself longing to fast-forward to find the good bits.

In Summary
This is something of an uneven volume, at its best in the action sequences in Phase 28, least good when clobbering the viewer over the head with unnecessary and repetitive flashbacks. Nevertheless, the final episode ‘Ephemeral Dream’ prepares the ground for some searing conflicts to come.