Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
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Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (or "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 Cosmic Era. The series has 50 episodes, aired in Japan from October 52002 to September 272003.
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Overview
Directed by Mitsuo Fukuda (Future GPX Cyber Formula and Gear Fighter Dendoh), the series is set in an alternate universe to the original series, the Cosmic Era universe. 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 elements from New Mobile Report Gundam Wing and After War Gundam X. On one side is the Earth Alliance, and on the opposite is the space colonies that form ZAFT (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty). Mankind has evolved into new forms through genetic engineering, with normal humans known as 'Naturals' and the genetically altered 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. Gundam SEED started with simaliar plot lines to the first Gundam series. But later on in the series Gundam SEED took off into its own original plotline.
The series is licensed by Bandai Visual. The American edition is currently being broadcast on Cartoon Network as of April 2004 at 10:30 pm on Toonami. Things that were edited out on Cartoon Network include mature content (ex. 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 (ex. 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 (ex. Signel Clyne getting shot by ZAFT soldiers loyal to Patrick Zala); all references to the facts that the Living CPUs need to take performance enhanching drugs; and most notoriously, all handguns being transformed into neon-colored lasers, dubbed "Disco Guns" by fans, for the majority of the show's run. Due to its mediocre performance, it was pushed back to 1:00 am on Friday nights starting with Phase 27. However, the airings of the final two episodes were left mostly unedited, with only a few elements being affected -- namely the guns used by Azrael, Patrick Zala, and one of the ZAFT soliders (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, and the removal or altering of scenes that are very violent. Only the final episode was given the PG-SV rating rather than the usual TV-Y7 rating. The Canadian version debuted on YTV's Bionix block in September 2004 at 9:30 pm where it got a slightly better reception and aired comparatively uncut.
An abridged, six part version of the TV series is also being released as Gundam SEED: Special Edition. The English manga is published in North America by Del Rey Manga and in Singapore by Chuang Yi, while Gundam SEED Astray, a spinoff of Gundam SEED, is published in North America by TokyoPop.
Another element left over from the most popular recent Gundam series (1995-6's Gundam Wing) was the presence of five color-coded Gundams piloted by angst-ridden bishonen. This made the series quite attractive to female fans, though to date unofficial SEED slash fiction is primarily concentrated among the ZAFT adversary characters, rather than among the Archangel crew members. One characteristic of this Gundam series is that it focused on character development in addition to fighting. As in The Super Dimension Fortress Macross and Neon Genesis Evangelion, this resulted in several episodes without any fighting.
Also running with the 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.
On July 62004 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 2004 on the network Mainichi Broadcasting System and continues to do so today.
Character Synopsis
- Naturals - Natural-born humans without gene manipulation (*)
- Coordinators - Special-born humans with gene manipulation (**)
Earth Federation
- Kira Yamato* - Gene manipulation effect: (Technical knowledge of the Strike Gundam)
ZAFT
- Athrun Zala* -
Miscellaneous
- Flay Alister -
- Lacus Clyne** - (Gene manipulation effect: Beautiful singing voice)
- Cagali Yula Athha* -
Cast & Crew
Japanese Cast
- Aisha - Vivian Hsu
- Athrun Zala - Ishida Akira
- Cagalli Yula Athha - Shindou Naomi
- Dearka Elsman - Sasanuma Akira
- Fllay Allster - Kuwashima Houko
- Kira Yamato - Hoshi Souichirou
- Lacus Clyne - Tanaka Rie
- Miguel Aiman - Takanori Nishikawa
- Murrue Ramius - Mitsuishi Kotono
- Mwu La Flaga - Koyasu Takehito
- Natarle Badgiruel - Kuwashima Houko
- Nicol Amarfi - Matsui Mami
- Raww le Klueze - Seki Toshihiko
- Yzak Jule - Seki Tomokazu
Staff
- Director - Mitsuo Fukuda
- Series Writer - Chiaki Morosawa
- Character Design - Hisashi Hirai
- Mecha Designer - Kunio Okawara & Kimitoshi Yamane
- Music Composer - Toshihiko Sahashi
English-language Cast
- Narrator - Alison Matthews
- Kira - Matt Hill
- Rau le Creuset(Raww) - Mark Oliver
- Mu - Trevor Devall
- Murrue - Lisa Anne Beley
- Athrun - Sam Vincent
- Cagalli - Vanessa Morley
- Dearka - Brad Swaile
- Miriallia - Anna Cummer
- Tolle - Richard Ian Cox
- Flay, Birdy, Haro - Tabitha St. Germain
- Sai - Bill Switzer
- Kuzzey - Keith Miller
- Natarle - Sarah Johns
- Yzak - Michael Adamthwaite
- Neumann - Philip Pacaud
- Lacus - Chantal Strand
- Nicol - Gabe Khouth
- Chandra - Simon Hayama
- Tonomura - Matt Smith
- Pal - Brendan Van Wijk
- Murdoch - Ward Perry
- Siegel Clyne - Don Brown
- Patrick Zala - Andrew Kavadas
Openings & Endings & Insert Songs
Openings:
- Invoke by T.M. Revolution (ep. 1-13)
- Moment by Vivian or Kazuma (ep. 14-26)
- Believe by Nami Tamaki (ep. 27-40)
- Realize by Nami Tamaki (ep. 41-50)
Endings:
- Anna ni Issho datta no ni by See-Saw (ep. 1-26)
- River by Tatsuya Ishii (ep. 27-39)
- Find The Way by Mika Nakashima (ep. 40-50)
Insert Songs:
- Akatsuki No Kuruma by FictionJunction YUUKA
- METEOR by T.M. Revolution
- Mizu no Akashi by Rie Tanaka
- Shizuka na Yoru ni by Rie Tanaka
See also
Preceded by (in production order): ∀ Gundam
Followed by (in production and chronological order): Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny
External links
- Official page is at http://www.gundamofficial.com/worlds/ce/index.html
- Japanese site is at http://www.gundam-seed.net/
- Fan sites are located at:
- Gundam Plus (http://www.gun-plus.com/) : For in depth information and large screenshot / gallery images on Gundam.
- Ashitsuki (http://ashi.anime-epoch.com)
- Seed Genesis (http://seedgenesis.net) : For in depth info, graphics, and media
- http://www.mahq.net
- http://www.gundams.net/
- http://www.gundamseednfo.tk/
- http://www.thai-toku-v3.us/torpong/seed/
- http://gundamseedhq.cjb.net/
- http://www.oywq3.com/seed/
- http://aeug.blogspot.com
- http://www.sutoraiku.net
Template:Cosmic Erade:Gundam Seed ja:機動戦士ガンダムSEED zh:機動戰士鋼彈SEED th:กันดั้มซี้ด