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Financially GSD was undoubtedly a success. You don't sell 80k per volume and not turn a tidy profit, especially with model sales on top of that. When people complain about GSD it comes down to the quality of writing/direction for the show. Fukuda was the Yes-Man Sunrise always wanted that Tomino would never be for them. The results are obvious -- shoddy storytelling and character development that was all over the place and altered on the whim of merchandise sales.
Shinn was supposed to be a next-generation Kamille, however he never grew up like Kamille did. He ended up rash, immature, and easily manipulated right up to the end. The character development was tapped out on the original cast after S1, so the only way to move things along was to basically reset the development for Athrun and Cagalli. Then Kira and Lacus basically sit back as a "straight line" of development for the first half.
Eventually they decide to shove Shinn to the back, but they still want to sell a new Gundam design, so they created the terribly written "battle" between Shinn and Kira for Ep34. Where in order to defeat Kira, they basically have him "staring in the rear view mirror" the entire time not even paying attention. I found it rather comical.
Ultimate irony: I'm told the canon ending pairing is Athrun and Meyrin. Heh.
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