Mobile Suit Gundam SEED

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (or "Gundam SEED") is an anime television series from Japan. It takes place in an alternate universe called the Cosmic Era. The series has 50 episodes, aired in Japan from October 5, 2002 to September 27, 2003 at 6:00 PM on the JNN TV stations (Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS TV), Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS TV, producing TV station), etc.).

Overview
Directed by Mitsuo Fukuda, the series is the first set in 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. The plot line is immense. 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 similar plot lines to the first Gundam series. But later on in the series Gundam SEED took off into a more original plotline.

The series is licensed by Bandai Entertainment, and was released on DVD in North America in uncut bilingual format. An edited version of the English dub premiered during the Toonami block at 10:30pm on Saturday nights, it was pushed back to 1:00 am on Friday nights starting with Phase 27 due to below average ratings. It is currently running at 5:00 a.m. on every other Saturday morning alternating with .hack//legend of the twilight bracelet.

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 oversaturation 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.

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 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 some inapproprite language or to alter any lines that are controversial, and the removal or altering of flashbacks to graphic assassinations.

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. Siegel Clyne getting shot by ZAFT soldiers loyal to 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.

The Canadian version debuted on YTV's Bionix block in September 2004 at 9:30 pm where it got a better reception and aired comparatively uncut, with almost all of the material listed above intact. Reruns are now airing Tuesdays at 11:30pm on YTV and the 10:00 pm Bionix block.

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. This series though, has been critised by some fans for poor directing, mediocre CGI, and unnecessary fan service. Furthermore, some fans, especially those familiar with the other more action oriented alternate universe series, disliked what they viewed as melodrama surrounding the teenage relationships in this series. It also has the most amount of flashback episodes in any Gundam series( 4), arranged into the 2 consecutive episodes as found in Gundam Wing. There has also been excessive inconsistent use of gravity effects. For example, Archangel residents are able to switch between floating and walking, even though the ship is in an environment devoid of gravity. However some would justify this inconsistance by way of magnetic ships shoes/boots/slippers.

Adaptations
An abridged, six part version of the TV series is also being released as Gundam SEED: Special Edition. The English manga, produced by Masatsugu Iwase, 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.

An adaptation of the TV series, produced by Mizuho Takayama, was originally as supplement of Comic BomBom. This version comes with folding colour 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-volumen version is available in Chinese, published by Rightman Publishing Ltd. in Hong Kong.

TV series was also turned into novel by Riu Koto, published by Kadokawa Shoten.

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 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 2004 on the network Mainichi Broadcasting System and ran until October 1 2005.

Japanese Cast

 * Athrun Zala - Akira Ishida
 * Cagalli Yula Athha - Shindou Naomi
 * Dearka Elsman - Akira Sasanuma
 * Flay Allster - Houko Kuwashima
 * Kira Yamato - Souichirou Hoshi
 * Lacus Clyne - Rie Tanaka
 * Miguel Aiman - Takanori Nishikawa (T.M. Revolution)
 * Murrue Ramius - Kotono Mitsuishi
 * Mwu La Flaga - Takehito Koyasu
 * Natarle Badgiruel - Houko Kuwashima
 * Nicol Amalfi - Mami Matsui
 * Rau Le Creuset - Toshihiko Seki
 * Yzak Joule - Tomokazu Seki

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, Ezalia Jule - Alison Matthews
 * Kira Yamato - Matt Hill
 * Rau Le Creuset - Mark Oliver
 * Mu La Flaga - Trevor Devall
 * Murrue Ramius, Eileen Canaver - Lisa Ann Beley
 * Athrun Zala - Samuel Vincent
 * Cagalli Yula Athha - Vanessa Morley
 * Dearka Elsman - Brad Swaile
 * Miriallia Haww - Anna Cummer
 * Tolle Koenig, Shani Andras - Richard Ian Cox
 * Flay Allster, Birdy (Torii), Haro - Tabitha St. Germain
 * Sai Argyle - Bill Switzer
 * Kuzzey Buskirk - Keith Miller
 * Natarle Badgiruel - Sarah Johns
 * Yzak Joule - Michael Adamthwaite
 * Clotho Buer, Yuri Amalfi - Ted Cole
 * Arnold Neumann - Philip Pacaud
 * Lacus Clyne - Chantal Strand
 * Lacus' singing voice - Jillian Michaels
 * Andrew Waltfeld, Reverend Malchio - Brian Drummond
 * Martin DaCosta - Brian Dobson
 * Nicol Amalfi - Gabe Khouth
 * Dalida Lolaha Chandra II - Simon Hayama
 * Romero Pal - Brendan Van Wijk
 * Kojiro Murdoch - Ward Perry
 * Erica Simmons - Sharon Alexander
 * Asagi Caldwell - Jocelyne Loewen
 * Mayura Labatt - Rebecca Shoicet
 * Ledonir Kisaka - Adam Henderson
 * Uzumi Nara Athha - John Novak
 * Siegel Clyne - Don Brown
 * Patrick Zala - Andrew Kavadas
 * Muruta Azrael - Andrew Francis
 * Aisha - Saffron Henderson
 * Miguel Aiman - Tony Sampson
 * Capt. Fredrik Ades - Michael Dobson
 * Col. William Sutherland - Ron Halder
 * Orga Sabnak - Andrew Toth

Openings, Endings & Insert Songs
Openings:
 * Invoke by T.M. Revolution (ep. 1-13) (Toonami Broadcast: episode 1-26), (YTV Broadcast: 1-50)
 * 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 (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:
 * Akatsuki No Kuruma (Wheel of Dawn) by FictionJunction YUUKA (ep. 24, 32, 40)
 * Anna ni Issho datta no ni (We were so together, but) by See-Saw (episode 28)
 * METEOR by T.M. Revolution (ep. 26, 29, 35, 47)
 * Mizu no Akashi (Token of Water) by Rie Tanaka (English version Jillian Michaels) (ep. 36 & 41)
 * Shizuka na Yoru ni (In the Quiet Night) by Rie Tanaka (English version Jillian Michaels) (episodes 7-9, 14, 20)
 * Find The Way by Mika Nakashima (ep. 46)