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Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (or "Gundam Seed") is an anime television series from Japan. It has 50 episodes. It is a part of the Gundam franchise that started in 1979. The first episode of Gundam Seed aired on October 5, 2002; the last episode aired on September 27, 2003.
Overview Directed by Mitsuo Fukuda (Future Cyber Formula GPX 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 Gundam Wing and 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, but 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.
The series began broadcasting in Japan in October 2002 and is currently licensed by Bandai Visual. The American edition is currently being broadcast on Cartoon Network as of April 2004 on Toonami. Although things that were edited out on Cartoon Network are violent images ex. Tolle and Nichols brutal deaths and all references to the facts that the Living CPUs need to take performance enhanching drugs. An abridged, six part version of the TV series is also being released in Japan 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 leftover from the most popular recent Gundam series (1994-5'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 SEEDslash is primarily concentrated among the ZAFT adversary characters, rather than among the Archangel crew members.
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 channed Mainichi Broadcasting System and continues to do so today.
Cast & Crew
Cast
English-language Cast - Narrator - Alison Matthews
- Kira - Matt Hill
- Rau - Mark Oliver
- Mwu - 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
- Ades - Michael Dobson
- Kisaka - Adam Henderson
- Andy - Brian Drummond
- Sutherland - Ron Halder
- Azrael - Andrew Francis
Staff - Director - Mitsuo Fukuda
- Series Writer - Chiaki Morosawa
- Character Design - Hisashi Hirai
- Mecha Designer - Kunio Okawara & Kimitoshi Yamane
- Music Composer - Toshihiko Sahashi
Characters see Gundam Seed list of characters for more info - Kira Yamato - (Coordinator) Protagonist who first pilots the Strike Gundam but later upgrades to Freedom Gundam. His childhood friendship with Athrun is one of the pivotal elements in the series.
- Athrun Zala - (Coordinator) Pilot of Aegis Gundam and upgrades to Justice Gundam after losing Aegis in a battle with Kira. His childhood friendship with Kira is one of the pivotal elements in the series. His father, Patrick Zala, is a memeber of PLANT's High Council, and later the Chariman, and through a political arrangement between Patrick and Siegel Clyne, he is engaged to Lacus.
- Cagalli Yula Athha - (Natural) Daughter of the President of Orb also Kira's Natural twin sister. She later pilots Strike Rouge to support Athrun in the final battle. She also has the ability to go into SEED mode
- Lacus Clyne - (Coordinator) A very popular idol in PLANT and the daughter of Siegel Clyne, PLANT's Chairman and later a member of the High Council. Through a political arrangement, she and Athrun are engaged.
- Fllay Alster - (Natural) The spoilt daughter of George Alster, who by chance winds up on the Archangel and becomes embroiled in the center of the war.
- Murrue Ramius - (Natural) Captain of the Archangel and Flaga's love interest. Her old boyfriend was a mobile armor pilot who was killed in action. Captain Ramius is a stern but fair commanding officer who treats Kira Yamato as a younger brother.
- Mu La Flaga - Top Newtype Mobile Armor pilot, later pilots a rebuilt Strike Gundam. He is Al Da Flaga's son. Mwu and his father's clone Rau Le Crueset are the last Newtypes in the world. Like Ramius, Mwu treats Kira as a younger brother, taking the younger pilot frequently under his wing to teach him the finer points of piloting.
- Miriallia Haw - (Natural) Tolle's girlfriend who is in charge of communications in Archangel and later becomes friends with Deakka.
- Kuzzey Buskirk - (Natural) Part of Kira's group of friends but later leaves Archangel when the Archangel crew defects to Orb.
- Tolle Koenig - (Natural) Miriallia's boyfriend and backup pilot for the Sky Grasper. He is later beheaded by Athrun while piloting the FX-550 Skygrasper.
- Sai Argyle - (Natural) Flay's fiance and Archangel crew member.
- Dearka Elsman - (Coordinator) A former member of ZAFT and the pilot of Buster Gundam. He later befriends Miriallia and joins the Clyne Faction after being captured by the Archangel. Mitsuo Fukuda, the show's director, admitted that he had Dearka switching sides due to the poor sales figures of GAT-X103 Buster Gundam related merchandises
- Jackie Tonomura - (Natural) Archangel's original crew member, in charge of CIC
- Dalida Lolaha Chandra II - (Natural) Archangel's original crew member, in charge of CIC
- Romero Pal - (Natural) Archangel's original crew member, first in charge of fire control, then CIC
- Arnold Newmann - (Natural) Archangel's original crew member, in charge of driving Archangel itself
- Andrew Waltfeld - (Coordinator) The "Desert Tiger" of ZAFT who pilots a LaGOWE. Develops an interest in the twins (Kira Yamato and Cagalli Yula Athha). He is first believed to have been killed by Kira but survives the battle, losing an arm and an eye. He then goes on to become the captain of the Eternal
- Kojiro Murdoch - (Natural) Archangel's original crew member, a veteran mechanic
OMNI - Natarle Badgiruel - Executive Officer of Archangel and later Captain of Dominion. She is later repeatedly shot by Azrael and dies when Dominion is destroyed from Archangel's beam attack. Badgiruel is a stern martinet who operates strictly by the book, even when it conflicts with Captain Ramius.
- Lewis Halberton - Commander of 8th Fleet. Rear Admiral Halberton is Lt. Murrue Ramius's mentor and rumored(1) to be her lover. Admiral Halberton sacrifices his life to protect Archangel during her descent to the Earth's surface.
- Clotho Buer - Pilot of Raider Gundam and is addicted to performance enhancing drugs to have Coordinator powers for a short period of time. He is later killed by Dearka Elsman.
- Shani Andras - Pilot of Forbidden Gundam and is addicted to performance enhancing drugs to have co-ordinator powers for a short period of time. He is later killed by Yzak Joule.
- Orga Sabnak - Pilot of Calamity Gundam and is addicted to performance enhancing drugs to have co-ordinator powers for a short period of time. He is later killed by Athrun Zala.
- Muruta Azrael - Leader of Blue Cosmos, an extreme right-wing group dedicated to destroying Coordinators for a "Blue and Pure Earth" and in charge of the new OMNI Gundam pilots. He tries to kill Natarle when she disobeys orders, and manages to kill Flaga. However, he is killed when Dominion is destroyed.
- Flay Allster - Hates Coordinaters, but gives herself to Kira in order to manipulate him. She later becomes La Crueset's prisoner and later escapes to become the Dominion's commucation officer. However, Flay attempts to return to Archangel after being ordered to abandon ship by Natarle. She later dies when her escape pod is shot down by Le Crueset.
PLANTs/ZAFT - Patrick Zala - Athrun's father and escalates the ZAFT-OMNI war in his quest to purge the world of Naturals. He believes Coordinators are the only Humans for the Cosmic Era. The war has also pushed him into extreme measures such as the use of the Neutron Jammer Cancellers, the creation of the Eternal, and the building of a superweapon called GENESIS. He is later shot by a dissenting soldier who objects to his plan to vaporize Earth.
- Siegel Clyne - The Chairman of the PLANT Supreme Council (the government that ZAFT is part of) and father of Lacus Clyne. He is more moderate in seeking a peaceful solution to the war and doesn't have the hate most have towards naturals. Unfortunately, this had made him and his supporters the minority in the PLANT council and he gets brutally gunned down by Patrick's minions searching for his daughter.
- Nicol Amalfi - Pilot of Blitz Gundam, he later gets killed by Kira. Has what may be the worst last words in anime history ("Mother... my piano...").
- Yzak Jule - Pilot of Duel Gundam, gets a scar on the forehead from Kira. He later joins Dearka in the final battle to fight OMNI Enforcer and save the PLANTs.
- Rau Le Creuset - A failed clone of Al Da Flaga and is hellbent on destroying all of humanity. He is killed by Kira Yamato at the final battle. Rau and Al Da's son Mwu La Flaga are the last Newtypes in the world. Rau's surname means "Crucible" in French.
- Miguel Aiman - Known as the "Magic Bullet Of Dusk", Miguel was a ZAFT ace under the command of Le Creuset, who normally piloted a customized GINN tailored to his combat style. Unfortunately, Miguel ended up meeting two bits of bad luck that ultimately cost him his life - his custom GINN was severely damaged by Serpent Tail mercenary ace Gai Murakumo, forcing him to use a standard GINN in the Heliopolis assault - where he was killed by the Strike Gundam piloted by Kira Yamato.
Civilians/Other - Uzumi Nara Athha - Leader of the Emirate of Orb; later commits suicide with the rest of Orb forces to stop OMNI from occupying their nation
- George Glenn - Born 16 years before the start of the Cosmic Era Timeline. By age 20 he was nominated for the Nobel Prize, became an Ace Pilot and a star employee of the Atlantic Federation's Federal Aeronautics and Space Administration (FASA). Graduated from MIT, became an American football star and Olympic athlete, develops PLANT as research labs and headed the Jupiter exploration project. He is the first Coordinator and gives away his genetic secret to the world, sowing the Coordinator-Natural rift. He was assassinated in C.E. 53 by a young Natural who wished he had been born a Coordinator, which further inflames both sides.
- Evidence 01 - Also called the "Winged Whale", it is an extraterrestial fossil that was found orbiting Jupiter by George Glenn, proving the existence of life beyond Earth.
(Main article: Mobile Weapons of the Cosmic Era
"Gundam" is not used officially in the series to officially identify any mobile suit; it is an acronym for two of the various Mobile Operating Systems used to run mobile suits, and Kira Yamato uses it as a nickname to refer to his mobile suit, followed by it's gradual spread and use by some other characters.
Archangel Crew/Clyne Faction The Triple Ships Alliance, commonly known as the "Clyne Faction," uses a mix of mobile suits from the Atlantic Federation, Orb Union and ZAFT. Its ace pilots generally retained whichever mobile suits they defected with; it also had a full squadron of Orb Union Astray mobile suits.
OMNI Enforcer OMNI mobile suits have the designation GAT (Gressorial Armament Tactical). Experimental units in the series include the modifier of "X" before the unit designation number (example: GAT-X105 Strike Gundam) The word "Gressorial" means "adapted for walking." Mobile armors have the designation TS-MA (Theatre Suppression - Mobile Armor).
OMNI's mobile suit operating system is designated "General Unilateral Neurolink Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver" (or "GUNDAM").
Eurasian Federation While also in the Earth Alliance, the Eurasians do not trust the Atlantic Federation, and so, they create their own mobile suit, the Composition Armament Tactical Gundams. They are based on Acteton Industry's Gel-Finito.
ZAFT ZAFT mobile suits have the following designations and meanings: - ZGMF (Zero-Gravity Maneuver Fighter)
- AMF (Aerial Maneuver Fighter)
- TFA (Terrestrial Fighter Artillery
- TMF/A (Terrestrial Maneuver Fighter/Attacker
- UWMF/S (UnderWater Maneuver Fighter/Striker(?))
- UMF (Underwater Maneuver Fighter)
- YMF (Service Test Maneuver Fighter)
When ZAFT builds three new mobile suits based on the captured mobile suits Buster, Duel, Aegis and Blitz, they designate the operating system for those suits "Generation Unsubdued Nuclear Drive Assault Module" (or "GUNDAM").
Orb Union Orb's mobile suits are designated "MBF" for Main Battle Figure.
Battleships and Spacecraft
Earth Alliance/Archangel crew
ZAFT/PLANT/Clyne Faction - Laurasia-class Mobile Suit carrying Frigate (FFM) - Gamow
- Nazca-class High-Speed Mobile Suit carrying Destroyer (DDMH) - Vesalius
- Bosugolof-class Submarine - Tsuigara.
- Eternal-class mobile suit transport ship - Constructed to support Freedom Gundam and Justice Gundam, this ship carries the two METEOR units for the aforementioned mobile suits. For some unknowable reason, it's pink, despite being built as a warship.
- Lesseps-class Land Battleship - A mobile giant goundbase, it moves quite fast using a snakelike "scale system"
- MS Transport Ship
- METEOR - Mobile suit weapons support system (Mobile suit Embedded Tactical EnfOrceR). Converts a mobile suit into a mobile armor, similar in concept to Gundam 0083's RX-78GP03D Gundam Dendrobium mobile armor.
- GENESIS - ZAFT's superweapon; it is a nuclear-power weapon installed with a N-Jammer Canceller and Phase Shift. It has the ability to shoot a giant megabeam capable to scorching the entire surface of the earth.
- The PLANT Supreme Council is the small government established years before the war, by the present day ZAFT forces. The Council is made of twelve representatives from the twelve PLANT citys in (L5). The present known chairman is Siegel Clyne, but is replaced by Patrick Zala, before Operation Spit Break was launched in 71 C.E.
Orb Union and Civilians - Combat Helicopter
- Aegis-class sea battleship
- Izumo-class battleship Kusanagi - A modular ship, the prototype for the Archangel class.
- Jupiter Exploration Ship (Civilians) - Piloted by George Glenn to explore deep space
Episode Guide - See Cosmic Era episode list
- Phase 01 - False Peace
- Phase 02 - It's Name is Gundam
- Phase 03 - Collapsing Homeland
- Phase 04 - Silent Run
- Phase 05 - Phase Shift Down
- Phase 06 - The Vanishing Gundam
- Phase 07 - The Scar of Space
- Phase 08 - The Songstress of The Enemy
- Phase 09 - The Fading Light
- Phase 10 - Crossroads
- Phase 11 - The Awakening Sword
- Phase 12 - Flay's Decision
- Phase 13 - Stars Falling in a Space
- Phase 14 - Within Endless Time
- Phase 15 - The Respective Solitudes
- Phase 16 - Burning Clouds of Sand
- Phase 17 - Cagalli Returns
- Phase 18 - Payback
- Phase 19 - Fangs of the Enemy
- Phase 20 - On a Calm Day
- Phase 21 - Beyond the Clouds of Sand
- Phase 22 - The Sea Dyed Red
- Phase 23 - Fateful Encounter
- Phase 24 - War for Two
- Phase 25 - The Land of Peace
- Phase 26 - Moment
- Phase 27 - Endless Rondo
- Phase 28 - Kira
- Phase 29 - The Turning Point
- Phase 30 - Flashing Blades
- Phase 31 - Grieving Skies
- Phase 32 - In the Promised Land
- Phase 33 - Gathering Darkness
- Phase 34 - Seen and Unseen
- Phase 35 - The Descending Sword
- Phase 36 - In the Name of Justice
- Phase 37 - Divine Thunder
- Phase 38 - Decisive Fire
- Phase 39 - Athrun
- Phase 40 - Into the Dawn Skies
- Phase 41 - Trembling World
- Phase 42 - Lacus Strikes
- Phase 43 - What Stands in the Way
- Phase 44 - Spiral of Encounters
- Phase 45 - The Opening Door
- Phase 46 - The Place of Souls
- Phase 47 - Nightmare's Return
- Phase 48 - Day of Fury
- Phase 49 - The Light of Apocalypse
- Phase 50 - Towards an Endless Tomorrow
Openings & Endings Openings: Endings: - Anna ni Isshodattanoni by See-Saw (ep. 1-26)
- River by Tatsuya Ishii (ep. 27-39)
- Find The Way by Mika Nakashima (ep. 40-50)
See also Preceded by: ∀ Gundam
Followed by: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny
External links Footnotes (1): This is stated in the notes section of Vol. 1 of the manga adaptation of Gundam Seed. The canonical status of the manga adaptations is unknown.
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