News: English-Subtitled Teaser of Gundam SEED FREEDOM Anime Film Reveals Staff and Debut Date

The official website for the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed film project opened on Sunday and revealed the film’s title Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM, additional staff members, C.E. (Cosmic Era) 75 chronological setting, teaser visual, first English-subtitled teaser promotional video, and January 26, 2024 opening in Japan.

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 Satō, 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

Bandai Namco previously announced that the film is planned for release in the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2024.

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.

Sources: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM anime film’s website, Mobile Suit Gundam YouTube channel, Mainichi Shimbun’s Mantan Web

Disclosure: Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. (Sunrise) is a non-controlling, minority shareholder in Anime News Network Inc.