While Americans may have Star Wars and Under the spell of the Ring as cornerstones of toy items, in Japan is the undisputed titan for nerds who love to collect figurines gundam. The franchise started out as an anime called Mobile suit Gundam which premiered on April 7, 1979. It would be hailed as an instant classic for its realistic settings, focus on political warfare, and characters that could (sometimes) be morally ambiguous. The series was then reworked into three films, where the box office success would propagate the franchise in pop culture forever.
TV sequels followed shortly after, along with spin-offs and lots of merchandise. Lots and lots of merchandise! Although these original anime and movies were brought to America early on, it wasn’t until Gundam Wing hit Cartoon Network’s Toonami that brought the franchise real fame in America. It was so popular that it was even (temporarily) dethroned Dragon Ball Z and pokemon as the most popular anime in America. Gundam’s huge success was poised to continue the streak of victories in America… until a crucial mistake brought the whole thing to a halt.
The Gundam Revolution is coming to America
While Gundam was a huge franchise in Japan, for decades it was something only underground nerds in America really knew. As mentioned above, the original trilogy of Gundam movies was brought over to America, but for the most part, the general public was largely unaware of the franchise. Parent company Bandai Entertainment has always been interested in making Gundam a hit franchise in the west, but never really had any luck selling the show to a wide enough audience to make that plan feasible. Without the potential to sell the series in any meaningful way, plans to import additional items into the franchise were stalled.
Until Bandai’s eye fell on a small programming block: Toonami. Seeing how popular anime became on Toonami, Bandai left the first eight episodes of Gundam Wing with the block programmers, hoping to see potential in the series. One man – Jason DeMarco – watched the episodes and immediately fell in love with the series. Not only did it feature the action sequences that defined Toonami, but it also had a storyline full of politics, intrigue and sophistication! It would be Toonami’s first “adult” series, and it would be a great way to test whether an anime will air uncut at midnight (a concept that would be successful enough to pave the way for a full adult animation block called Adult swim).
Toonami ordered the series and hyped it up with what many consider to be one of their best commercials ever. Gundam Wing WOULD be a big hit! Not only did guys love the action sequences (and merchandise sales would attest to that), but the series managed to attract a sizable female audience, with many girls having favorite members of the five Gundam guys and writing fanfiction around the characters. . Gundam Wing was about to finally become the big hit that Bandai wanted it to be. Cartoon Network wanted more, and Bandai was more than happy to provide.
The tactical mistake
Because the original Mobile suit Gundam Still considered one of the best anime of all time (and honestly, from this writer’s perspective you’re missing out if you haven’t seen it), Bandai decided their next Gundam release would be the original series. They produced a new dub and Cartoon Network happily aired it. Mobile suit Gundam premiered on Toonami in 2001, but there were problems.
Unlike other series that run on the block, Mobile suit Gundam was over twenty years old and looked like this! unlike Gundam Wing — which perfectly balanced the fast-paced action with teenage political intrigue — Mobile suit Gundam was more focused on dialogue with fewer action scenes, so some kids struggled to stay engaged. The most unfortunate attack on the series was the life-changing event that would occur a few months later: the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center.
With the world in a different place, a series like Mobile suit Gundam — which often used guns, overt politics and terrorist attacks as part of the story — seemed particularly insensitive to selling to children in a world still suffering from a terrorist attack that killed more than 3,000 people. The series was taken off the air for several months. It would eventually return to Adult Swim, but would be pulled before its run was completed due to low ratings. Cartoon Network decided they were mostly done with Gundam at that point, and another series wouldn’t air until several years later.
Thinking about Mobile Suit Gundam
When Robert Napton, Bandai’s director of marketing, went to the ANNCast to discuss the final days of Bandai Entertainment, the topic of Gundam came up. When asked where he felt the franchise faltered, he didn’t hesitate: In his mind, it was a mistake to follow Gundam Wing of Mobile suit Gundam. The series was too old, too sophisticated for a teenage audience, and had disturbing sequences as a result of a nationwide tragedy that no one at Bandai could have predicted. In hindsight, something like G Gundam probably would have made for a better follow up as it featured the Gundams in a series that took a LOT of inspiration from another show that was a big hit on Toonami: Dragon Ball Z!
Cartoon Network aired on April 17, 2004 Gundam Seed. While the series had a mixed reception from critics, with more modern animation, a gripping soundtrack, and protagonists much closer to the age of the network’s viewers, the series was embraced more warmly. Today, Right Stuf International – through their production label Nozomi Entertainment – has become the primary gatekeepers of the Gundam franchise.
They’ve been slowly releasing the series on BluRay over the past few years (many of them for the first time). While the franchise never reached the heights that Gundam Wing did, it now has a loyal following in America. Oh, and Gundam models can now be found in almost every comic and toy store in America. Not a bad long-term outcome for a series that derailed so badly at one point.
Source: ANNCast
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