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Mobile Suit Gundam SEED

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Mobile Suit Gundam SEED

<tr><td colspan="2" style="background: #fff; text-align: center;">Image:Gundam Seed 4.JPG</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" style="background: #ccf; text-align: center;">機動戦士ガンダム・シード
(Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED)</td></tr>

Genre Drama, Mecha, Romance, Science Fiction
TV anime
Directed by Mitsuo Fukuda
Studio Sunrise
Network Image:Flag of Japan (bordered).svg Mainichi Broadcasting System, Tokyo Broadcasting System
Image:Flag of the United States.svg Cartoon Network
Image:Flag of the Philippines.svg ABS-CBN, Hero TV, Cartoon Network
Image:Flag of Australia.svg Cartoon Network (Adult Swim)
Image:Flag of South Korea (bordered).svg Champ TV, Tooniverse
Original run October 5, 2002 – September 27, 2003
No. of episodes 50
OVA: After Phase: In the Valley of Stars
Directed by Mitsuo Fukuda
Studio Sunrise
No. of episodes 1
Released March 26, 2004
Runtime
Manga
Authored by
Publisher Kodansha
Serialized in
Original run February 17, 2003 – January 29, 2004
No. of volumes 5

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (機動戦士ガンダムSEED　シード Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED?), shortened to Gundam SEED, is an anime television series from Japan. It is a part of the Gundam franchise that started in 1979, but takes place in an alternate universe called the Cosmic Era. The series has 50 episodes, aired in Japan from October 52002 to September 272003 at 6:00 p.m. on the JNN TV stations (Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS TV), Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS TV, producing TV station), etc.).

Contents

[edit] Overview

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Directed by Mitsuo Fukuda (Future GPX Cyber Formula and Gear Fighter Dendoh), the series is the first set in the Cosmic Era. This series begins with a war between Earth and the colonies that is similar to the One Year War of the original Gundam series with certain traditional elements from New Mobile Report Gundam Wing and After War Gundam X such as the presence of five multicolored gundam mobile suits and the threat of an apocalypse. On one side is the Earth Alliance, and on the opposite is the space colonies that form ZAFT (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty). Mankind is divided over human genetic engineering, with normal humans known as "Naturals" and the genetically altered humans known as "Coordinators". Like the original series, ZAFT has a head start on mobile suit design, the Earth Alliance quickly catches up with its five prototype Gundams. With ZAFT having stolen four of the prototypes, young pilot Kira Yamato takes the Strike Gundam and is forced to fight his old friend Athrun Zala. Little do they know that there are sinister forces at work that go far beyond their worst nightmares.

[edit] Themes and reactions

Despite an average beginning, once the series took off, the series was widely acclaimed among certain fans, and has left a great legacy upon the mech otaku community of Japan and abroad. A handful of major characters consistently top the favourite character lists of Newtype magazine, and the merchandise sold in the thousands.

The series was intended to be Universal Century updated for a new generation of fans, and the similarities between the original Mobile Suit Gundam and this series are numerous. To fit the tastes of 21st century teenagers, the series focused heavily on the interpersonal relationships between the characters, resulting in well-crafted and many layered romantic friendships. The traumatic friendship between Kira and Athrun guides the series, but the old-school romance between ace pilot Mu and captain Murrue won the hearts of many. Moreover, the series featured a villainous presence in Rau Le Creuset. This is something which many Gundam series lacked in such pure, nefarious form: however, this is one of the more criticised points among older fans, who preferred the more multi-dimensional antagonists of earlier series who often had motivations or ideals that could be agreed with. The drawing style was also updated to a modern style, characterized by bright colors, big eyes, small mouth and noses, and unique colored and often eccentric hair styles. Many critics have accused the particular artistic and directing style of depicting characters poorly and in a cliché manner, which may explain the alienation of older viewers who specifically complain Gundam has been "glossed over". The protagonists are also for the most part very young, to cater to the younger audience that has always been the primary target audience of the majority of Japanese animated shows like Gundam.

The inclusion of issues such as racism, with desires of genocide, further updated the series and provided food for thought as well as social commentary. The genetically altered Coordinators provide a vision for the future in a world fraught with talk of GM food and cloning.

Many old school Gundam fans were upset with how much the series took from the original Mobile Suit Gundam, saying that it was nothing more than a ripoff of the original. Other criticisms revolve around the fact that Gundam SEED focuses a lot of chara-moe, or moé of characters rather than the bigger picture of war, and that the animation style is flashy and disjointed compared to all previous Gundam stories in terms of atmosphere. Other old school fans are pleased however, stating that Fukuda was able to adapt the premise in a new direction, as a possible "What if?" situation and like the new direction that Fukuda took with the already established story and archetypes [[Champ TV]]

[edit] Airing information

The series is licensed by Bandai Entertainment, and was released on DVD in North America in uncut bilingual format. On April 17, 2004, an edited version of the English dub premiered at 10:30 p.m. on Cartoon Network's Toonami block, which ran on Saturday nights. On October 23, 2004, it was moved to 1:00 a.m. on Saturdays starting with Phase 27 due to below average ratings.

The majority of the series was aired with a TV-Y7, apparently, at the insistence of Bandai who were desperately trying to push the new Gundam SEED toy line. However, since most retailers had stopped carrying the Gundam line due to over-saturation from the G Gundam series, this soon became a lost cause. Only the final episode was given the TV-PG-SV rating rather than the usual TV-Y7 rating.

Things that were edited out on Cartoon Network include mature content (e.g. most references to the sexual relationship between Kira and Flay — though the initial scene presenting this was left partially intact); scenes of intense combat violence (e.g. almost all shots of pilots, including main characters, in their cockpits before having their machines destroyed); cold-blooded or brutal murders that are non-mobile suit related (e.g. Siegel Clyne getting shot by ZAFT soldiers loyal to Rau Le Creuset and Patrick Zala); all references to the fact that the "Living CPUs" need to take performance enhancing drugs; and most notoriously, handguns being sloppily and inconsistently transformed into neon-colored lasers, dubbed "Disco Guns" by fans, for the majority of the show's run. Also, there was little to no use of the words "kill" or "die" in the middle of the series airing, with the phrase "taking his/her lifre" or some variant of the phrase in the place of either word.

Since most of the series had been edited by Williams Street before broadcast, Cartoon Network changed very little in terms of content allowance. However, the airings of the final two episodes were left mostly unedited, with only a few elements being affected — namely the guns used by Muruta Azrael, Patrick Zala, and one of the ZAFT soldiers (which was given neon-colored lights in certain but not all of the image frames), airbrushing the naked Flay's body in the final episode to avoid showing her cleavage, reducing the amount of blood shown, editing the character's lines to remove either inappropriate language or controversial lines, and the removal or altering of flashbacks of graphic assassinations.

The Canadian version debuted on YTV's Bionix programming block on September 10, 2004 at 9:30 p.m. where it got a better reception and aired comparatively uncut, with almost all of the material listed above intact. After airing the entire series three times through, YTV broadcasted the show for the last time on September 2, 2006.

In Japan, it occupied the Saturday 6 p.m. timeslot on MBS and TBS, widely considered a prime timeslot; the anime and its subsequent successor to the timeslot (Fullmetal Alchemist) went on to do very well.

In the Philippines, the show began airing on ABS-CBN on December 20, 2004. First shown on the 6 p.m. primetime block on weekdays (Mondays-Fridays), it was later moved to the 5:30 p.m. slot on the same dayframe until it's end on March 4, 2005. As of September 2006, it airs on ABS-CBN's cable anime channel, Hero TV every Wednesdays at 2:30 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. and The Midnight run on Thursdays at 1:30 a.m.; and on Cartoon Network every Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 p.m. (all times in Philippine Standard Time [GMT+8]).

[edit] Adaptations, spinoffs, and sequels

A three-part compilation of the TV series has been released as Gundam SEED: Special Edition.

An adaptation of the TV series, authored by Mizuho Takayama, was originally a supplement of Comic BomBom. This version comes with folding color posters of the mobile suits, and a bonus Gundam SEED Destiny episode 0 comic. The stories were eventually published into 2 volumes by Kodansha. The 2 volume version is available in Chinese, published by Rightman Publishing Ltd. in Hong Kong.

The TV series was also turned into a series of novels by Riu Koto, published by Kadokawa Shoten.

Also running with the TV series was a series of manga called Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray that told a side-story to the anime series. This proved popular enough to generate two more side-stories: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray R and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED X Astray.

The English manga, authored by Masatsugu Iwase, is published in North America by Del Rey Manga and in Singapore by Chuang Yi, while Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray is published in North America by TOKYOPOP.

On July 6, 2004 the sequel to Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, was announced after over a month of rumors. It started airing in Japan on October 9, 2004 on the network Mainichi Broadcasting System and ran until October 1, 2005. A third Gundam SEED production, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED C.E. 73: Stargazer, an ONA side-story to Destiny, is currently being streamed on Bandai Channel. A film was recently announced to complete the trilogy.

[edit] Cast and crew

One striking fact of the series is that the voices of characters, both major and minor, were done by many veteran seiyu. The cast list reads like a "Who's Who" of Japanese voice actors and actresses. This is also carried over to the sequel, Gundam SEED Destiny. Likewise, its English language version features a cast of many veteran English voice actors from Ocean Group studios, the Canada based company which revoiced it. This includes many actors who had previously worked on other Gundam series, namely Gundam Wing and Mobile Suit Gundam. However, fan reaction to this version is divided.

[edit] Japanese cast

[edit] English-language cast

[edit] Theme songs and soundtrack albums

Opening Songs (OP):

Ending Songs (ED):

  • Anna ni Issho Datta no ni (あんなに一緒だったのに; We were so together, but) by See-Saw (ep. 1-26)
  • RIVER by Tatsuya Ishii (ep. 27-39)
  • FIND THE WAY by Mika Nakashima (ep. 40-50)

Insert Songs (IN):

Gundam SEED Related Albums :

  • Original Soundtrack I (by Toshihiko Sahashi and Yuki Kajiura) (2002.12.04)
  • Original Soundtrack II (by Toshihiko Sahashi and Yuki Kajiura) (2003.04.23)
  • Original Soundtrack III (by Toshihiko Sahashi and Yuki Kajiura) (2003.09.21)
  • Original Soundtrack IV (by Toshihiko Sahashi and Yuki Kajiura) (2004.12.16)
  • OP1 Single - invoke (by T.M.Revolution) (2002.10.30)
  • ED1 Single - Anna ni Issho Datta no ni (by See-Saw) (2002.10.23)
  • OP2 Single - moment (by Vivian or Kazuma) (2003.01.29)
  • OP2 Single - moment Remix (by Various artists) (2003.04.23)
  • ED2 Single - RIVER (by Tatsuya Ishii) (2003.03.26)
  • ED2 Single - RIVER －Gundam SEED Edition－ (by Various artists) (2003.05.21)
  • OP3 Single - Believe (by Nami Tamaki) (2003.04.23)
  • OP3 Single - Believe Reproduction ～Gundam SEED Edition～ (by Various artist) (2003.05.21)
  • ED3 Single - FIND THE WAY (by Mika Nakashima) (2003.08.06)
  • OP4 Single - Realize (by Nami Tamaki) (2003.07.24)
  • OP4 Single - Realize Reproduction (by Various artists) (2003.09.26)
  • IN Single - Akatsuki no Kuruma (by FictionJunction YUUKA) (2004.09.22)
  • Suit CD vol. 1 Kira Yamato × Strike Gundam* (2003.03.21)
  • Suit CD vol. 2 Athrun Zala × Cagalli Yula Athha* (2003.04.23)
  • Suit CD vol. 3 Lacus Clyne × HARO* (2003.05.21)
  • Suit CD vol. 4 Miguel Ayman × Nicol Amarfi* (2003.06.21)
  • Suit CD vol. 5 Athrun × Yzak × Dearka* (2003.07.23)
  • Symphony Gundam Seed (2004.05.08)
  • Gundam SEED Complete Best (Contains some songs from OP1-OP4 and ED2-ED3) (2003.09.26)

Each Suit CD usually contain songs sung by the seiyuu of the characters featured, and audio drama clips of these characters in situations during their "typical" day. While most are comedic in nature, they help to flesh out the characters as well, often offering an insight at their behaviour in the series. (e.g. in Volume 5, Yzak talks about his rivalry with Athrun.) Also, do note that there are only 10 Suit CDs in total for GS and GSD (The numbering for the GS CDs are from 1 to 5).

[edit] See also

[edit] Video games

Note that this list only includes games with SEED/SEED Astray characters.

  • For the GBA
    • Gundam Seed: Battle Assault
    • Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Tomo to Kimi to Senjou de (機動戦士ガンダムSEED: 友と君と戦場で)
  • For the PS2:
    • Gundam Seed: Federation vs. Z.A.F.T.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam Seed
    • Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Never Ending Tomorrow

[edit] In Super Robot Wars Alpha 3

In this last installment of the Alpha series, some story plots in Gundam SEED are central to the main story of the game. The climax of these plots would be the Second Battle of Jachin Due, where players would be able to see the re-enactment of the destruction of the Strike (piloted by La Flaga) and the Dominion. However, it is possible to "save" La Flaga; the player either chooses not to use La Flaga in the Strike, or makes him the pilot of his older Moebius Zero mobile armour. In these cases, Natarle Badgiruel interferes with the Dominion's firing system, causing the ship's beam to miss the Archangel; Murrue Ramius then orders the retaliation.

Also, players would be able to use both Freedom and Justice in battle against Rau Le Creuset and the Providence. New dialogue was recorded for this non-canonical encounter.

[edit] External links


Cosmic Era
Anime
Gundam SEED | Gundam SEED: Special Edition | Gundam SEED Destiny | Gundam SEED Destiny: Special Edition | Gundam SEED C.E. 73: Stargazer | Gundam SEED: The Movie
Events
First Bloody Valentine War | Second Bloody Valentine War
Topics
Comprehensive Episode Listing | Human Enhancements | List of Characters | Locations | Mobile Suit Operation Systems | Mobile Suits | Nations and Factions | Superweapons | Technology | Warships and Spacecraft
Manga
Gundam SEED Novels | Gundam SEED Astray | Gundam SEED Destiny Astray | Gundam SEED Destiny: The Edge | Gundam SEED C.E. 73 Δ Astray | Gundam SEED Club Yonkoma
Alternate Timelines
Universal Century | Future Century | After Colony | After War | Turn A Gundam | SD Gundam
de:Gundam Seed

es:Gundam Seed fr:Gundam seed it:Mobile Suit Gundam SEED ja:機動戦士ガンダムSEED pl:Mobile Suit Gundam SEED pt:Mobile Suit Gundam Seed ru:Mobile Suit Gundam SEED sv:Gundam SEED tl:Mobile Suit Gundam SEED th:กันดั้มซี้ด vi:Gundam Seed zh:機動戰士GUNDAM SEED

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