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Mobile Suit Gundam SEED

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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 of Gundam Seed aired on September 27, 2003.

File:Gundam seed title.JPG
Title of the series

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 Zara.

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. 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 as a series of manga called Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray that told a side-story to the anime series. This was also popular enough to garner 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; the series will start airing on Mainichi Broadcasting System in October, 2004.

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Cast & Crew

Cast

English-language Cast

Staff

  • Director - Mitsuo Fukuda
  • Series Writer - Chiaki Morosawa
  • Character Design - Hisashi Hirai
  • Mecha Designer - Kunio Okawara & Kimitoshi Yamane
  • Music Composer - Toshihiko Sahashi

Characters

Archangel Crew/Clyne Faction

  • Kira Yamato - Protagonist who first pilots the Strike Gundam but later upgrades to Freedom Gundam. He has his "first time" with Flay and becomes her boyfriend for a time. He is also The Ultimate Coordinator created from a birthing lab.
  • Murrue Ramius - 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.
  • Mwu 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 - Tolle's girlfriend who is in charge of communications in Archangel and later becomes friends with Deakka.
  • Kuzzey Buskirk - Part of Kira's group but later leaves Archangel when the Archangel crew defects to Orb.
  • Tolle Koenig - Miriallia's boyfriend and backup pilot for the Sky Grasper. He is later beheaded by Athrun while piloting the FX-550 Skygrasper.
  • Sai Argyle - Flay's boyfriend and Archangel crew member.
  • Dearka Elsman - Pilot of Buster Gundam and later befriends Miriallia and joins the Clyne Faction
  • Athrun Zala - Pilot of Aegis Gundam and upgrades to Justice Gundam after losing Aegis in a battle with Kira.
  • Cagalli Yula Athha - 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
  • Jackie Tonomura - Archangel's original crew member, in charge of CIC
  • Dalida Lolaha Chandra II - Archangel's original crew member, in charge of CIC
  • Romero Pal - Archangel's original crew member, first in charge of fire control, then CIC
  • Arnold Newmann - Archangel's original crew member, in charge of driving Archangel itself
  • Andrew Waltfeld - 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 - 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.
  • Crot Buer - Pilot of Raider Gundam and is addicted to performance enhancing drugs to have co-ordinator powers for a short period of time. He is later killed by a combined attack by Deakka and Yzak
  • 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 Jule
  • 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 Zara
  • Murata 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 and gives herself to Kira. She later becomes La Crueset's prisoner and later escapes to become the Dominion's commucation officer. However, Flay returns to Archangel after being ordered to abandon ship by Nataru. She later dies when her escape pod is shot down by Le Crueset.

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
  • Sigel Clyne - The Chairman of the ZAFT council 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 ZAFT 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 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 to fight OMNI
  • 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.
  • Lacus Clyne - Athrun's former fiancee. She is Anti-war and heads the Clyne faction of ZAFT after her father is gunned down by Patrick Zara. She has the ability to go into SEED mode
  • Miguel Aiman - A GINN pilot and dies in the third episode. He personifies the senseless casualties of war. Miguel demonstrates the amazing ability to miss an utterly green mobile suit pilot at point-blank range.

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 - Graduated from MIT, became an American football star and Olympic athlete, served in the Air Force, 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 asassainated in C.E. 53 by a young Natural, further inflaming 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.

Mobile Suits

(Main article: Mobile Weapons of the Cosmic Era

"Gundam" is never used 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. The word "Gundam" is used in marketing copy and model kit/toy packaging to designate the "hero" mobile suits, as opposed to the normal "grunt" mobile suits.

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 also

Preceded by: ∀ Gundam

Followed by: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny

Incidents & events

Bloody Valentine Tragedy

This is an event in the plot of the Gundam SEED series. Template:Spoiler In the early stages of the Bloody Valentine War, the space colony Julius 7 was attacked and destroyed by the Earth Alliance. Thought the Alliance claimed that it blew up by itself, this tragedy however motived many Coordinators of the PLANTs to join ZAFT and fight against the Earth Alliance. Nicole, a pilot of the ZAFT Gundam team, said in episode 29 of the Gundam SEED saga, claimed that this motived him into joining the fight.

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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