Mobile Suit Gundam SEED

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
機動戦士ガンダム・シード
(Kidō Senshi Gundam SEED)
Genre Drama, Mecha, Romance, Science Fiction
TV anime
Directed by Mitsuo Fukuda
Studio Sunrise
Network Flag of Japan MBS, TBS, Animax
Flag of United States Cartoon Network
Flag of Canada YTV
Flag of Philippines ABS-CBN, Hero TV, Cartoon Network, Studio 23
Flag of Australia Cartoon Network (Adult Swim)
Flag of South Korea Champ TV, Tooniverse
Flag of Malaysia TV2
Flag of Singapore MediaCorp TV12 Central
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
Manga
Authored by
Publisher Japan Kodansha

United States Del Rey
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] Kidō Senshi Gundam SEED [Shīdo]?), shortened to Gundam SEED, is an anime television series by Sunrise and Bandai Visual. 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 spanned 50 episodes, aired in Japan from October 5, 2002 to September 27, 2003 at 6:00 p.m. on the JNN TV stations TBS and MBS.

Contents

[edit] Overview

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Directed by Mitsuo Fukuda (Future GPX Cyber Formula and Gear Fighter Dendoh) with music by Toshihiko Sahashi, 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.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Broadcast information

The series first premiered in Japan on the terrestrial MBS and TBS networks, where it occupied the Saturday 6 p.m. timeslot, widely considered a prime timeslot; the anime and its subsequent successor to the timeslot (Fullmetal Alchemist) went on to do very well. In February 2007, the series has begun rerunning across Japan on the anime satellite television network Animax.

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 life" or some variant of the phrase in the place of either word. In one instance during the shows desert ark, references to a character being an arms dealer were removed, turning the character into a "Water Dealer".

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. On September 2, 2006, YTV stopped broadcasting the show after airing the entire series three times through. Gundam SEED returned to the Bionix block on March 9, 2007 at 11:30 p.m., beginning its fourth run on YTV; the same evening Gundam SEED Destiny made its North American premiere on YTV.

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, it was later moved to the 5:30 p.m. slot on the same dayframe until its 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 on Thursdays at 1:30 a.m. The show ended it's Hero TV run in October 2006 to give way for the airing of Gundam SEED Destiny in December 2006. On December 20, 2006, two years after parent network ABS-CBN aired the series for the first time in the Filipino language, it ran on Studio 23. It airs from Mondays to Thursdays at 6:30 p.m., but sometimes it has a delay because the channel airs the Philippine Basketball League games every Tuesdays and Thursday. On February 26, 2007, Studio 23 moved Gundam SEED to 6:00 p.m. Gundam SEED has since concluded on Studio 23. On Cartoon Network Philippines, Gundam SEED airs on Toonami and editing was also implemented and later, it was aired on Adult Swim in its unedited version. However, no changes were implemented in the show on ABS-CBN and other stations that it aired on. Before the show began, however, a parental guidance warning was shown by the networks due to battle scenes, violence, sexual references and special effects.

[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.

[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 :

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 and 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
    • Gundam Seed: Federation vs. Z.A.F.T. 2 Plus
    • Battle Assault 3 featuring Gundam SEED

[edit] In Super Robot Wars Alpha 3

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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.

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.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Gundam

Universal Century:
Anime: MS IGLOO · Mobile Suit Gundam · The 08th MS Team · 0080: War in the Pocket · 0083: Stardust Memory · Zeta Gundam · Gundam ZZ · Char's Counterattack · Gundam F91 · Victory Gundam · G-Saviour
Books: The Origin · The Blue Destiny · Gundam Sentinel · Double-Fake: Under the Gundam · Gundam Unicorn · Hathaway's Flash · Crossbone Gundam · Gaia Gear
Events: Pre-One Year War · One Year War · Post-One Year War · Operation Stardust · Gryps Conflict · Neo-Zeon Movements · Late U.C.
Topics: Characters · Episode Listing · Locations · Mobile Suits · MSV · MS-X · Nations and Factions · Newtypes · Superweapons · Technology · Warships & Spacecraft
Future Century:
G Gundam · Mobile Suits
After Colony:
Episode Zero · Gundam Wing · The Last Outpost · Endless Waltz
Characters · Episode Listing · Mobile Suits · Nations and Factions · Locations · Technology · Operation Meteor
After War:
Gundam X · Under the Moonlight · Characters · Mobile Suits · Technology
Seireki (CC):
Turn A Gundam
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
Books: Gundam SEED Astray · Gundam SEED Destiny Astray · Gundam SEED Destiny: The Edge · Gundam SEED C.E. 73 Δ Astray · Gundam SEED Club Yonkoma · Gundam SEED Novelization
Events: First Bloody Valentine War · Second Bloody Valentine War
Topics: Characters · Episode Listing · Human Enhancements · Locations · Mobile Suits · M.O.S. · Nations and Factions · Superweapons · Technology · Vehicles & Aircraft · Warships & Spacecraft
Miscellaneous:
∀ Gundam · Gundam Evolve · SD Gundam · SD Gundam Force · Manga and Novels · Video games · Gundam the Ride: A Baoa Qu

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../m/o/b/Mobile_Suit_Gundam_SEED_1b27.html"