The fourth promotional video for the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed FREEDOM film project debuted on Sunday. The video announces and previews the theme song “Freedom” by Takanori Nishikawa (the artist also known as T.M. Revolution) with producer t.komuro (Tetsuya Komuro).
Nishikawa previously performed the theme songs for the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed television anime and its spinoffs, while Komuro is a member of the TM Network band that performed the ending theme song for the Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack film.
© 創通・サンライズ
© 創通・サンライズ
The cast, which features returning and new members, also includes:
- Sōichiro Hoshi as Kira Yamato
- Rie Tanaka as Lacus Clyne
- Akira Ishida as Athrun Zala
- Nanako Mori as Cagalli Yula Athha (replacing Naomi Shindoh)
- Kenichi Suzumura as Shinn Asuka
- Maaya Sakamoto as Lunamaria Hawke
- Fumiko Orikasa as Meyrin Hawke
- Kotono Mitsuishi as Murrue Ramius
- Takehito Koyasu as Mu La Flaga
- Tomokazu Seki as Yzak Jule (or Joule)
- Akira Sasanuma as Dearka Elsman
- Houko Kuwashima as Agnes Giebenrath
- Ayane Sakura as Toyah Mashima
- Houchu Ohtsuka as Alexei Konoe
- Jun Fukuyama as Albert Heinlein
- Michiko Neya as Hilda Haken
- Taiten Kusunoki as Herbert von Reinhard
- Junichi Suwabe as Maas Symeon
© 創通・サンライズ
From the left to right in the image above, the additional cast members and their characters are:
- Kentarō Tone as Liu Shenqiang
- Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Daniel Harper
- ??? as Griffin Arbalest
- Hiro Shimono as Orphee Lam Tao
- Yukari Tamura as Aura Maha Khyber
- Sumire Uesaka as Ingrid Tradoll
- Misato Fukuen as Redelard Tradoll
- Yūichi Nakamura as Shura Serpentine
The staff has not revealed the cast member for the character Griffin Arbalest.
© 創通・サンライズ
The film will open in Japan on January 26, 2024. The story is chronologically set in C.E. (Cosmic Era) 75.
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed director Mitsuo Fukuda is directing the film at Bandai Namco Filmworks. Fukuda also co-wrote the script along with his late wife Chiaki Morosawa and Liu Goto. Hisashi Hirai (Mobile Suit Gundam Seed) is designing the characters.
Other staff members include:
- Mechanical Design: Kunio Okawara, Kimitoshi Yamane, Kazutaka Miyatake, Junichi Akutsu, Manabu Shintani, Shiba Zen, Takuya Io, Hiroyuki Taiga
- Mechanical Animation Director: Satoshi Shigeta
- Color Key Artist: Akemi Nagao
- Art Directors: Shigemi Ikeda, Yukiko Maruyama
- CG Directors: Mitsuhiro Sato, Kensuke Kujida, Tomohiro Fujie
- Monitor Works: Azusa Tamura, Jirō Kageyama
- Compositing Director of Photography: Takeshi Katsurayama, Shigenori Toyooka
- Editing: Yukiko Nojiri
- Sound Director: Sadayoshi Fujino
- Music: Toshihiko Sahashi
The film project is part of the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Project ignited initiative, which was announced in 2021. The initiative commemorates the 20th anniversary of the original Mobile Suit Gundam Seed anime in 2022, and it has several parts. The initiative also includes a new Mobile Suit Gundam Seed game and the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Eclipse side-story manga.
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed director Mitsuo Fukuda confirmed that the film is a sequel to the second Gundam Seed television anime, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny.
The first Mobile Suit Gundam Seed television anime aired from 2002 to 2003, followed by Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny from 2004 to 2005. The three-part Mobile Suit Gundam Seed C.E.73: Stargazer anime project followed in 2006. Sony Music Anime Festival ’06 announced the planned film project in May 2006.
Chiaki Morosawa, the head scriptwriter for the two Gundam Seed series, passed away at the age of 56 in 2016. She had been collaborating with her husband, who directed both Gundam Seed television series, on the planned Gundam Seed film project. Morosawa had explained in 2008 that the plot for the project was completed, but that she had been ill since the end of the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny sequel in 2005.
Update: Typo fixed. Thanks, Rob19ny.
Source: Gundam.info
Disclosure: Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. (Sunrise) is a non-controlling, minority shareholder in Anime News Network Inc.
