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Jamnime Festival in Thailand Screens Gundam Seed FREEDOM Special Edition, Zegapain STA in February
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The first special edition of the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed FREEDOM film, with an epilogue cut (or cuts) added, played in Japan from September 20 to October 3. This second special edition, with a different epilogue cut (or cuts) added, ran from November 1 to November 14.
Director Mitsuo Fukuda explained that due to time, the staff members could not complete every section to their satisfaction in the version that opened in theaters on January 26. With the special editions, they updated those cuts and refined parts that felt off after screenings. Fukuda added, "I think we can call this the complete edition of Seed FREEDOM."
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed FREEDOM opened in Japan on January 26. The film debuted at #1 in the Japanese box office. It sold 634,182 tickets for 1,065,983,130 yen (about US$7.20 million) in its first three days, marking the Gundam franchise's highest three-day opening in box office earnings. The film is the highest-earning Gundam film in Japan ever.
JAM Thailand screened the film in the previous Jamnime Festival earlier this year in February.
Shintarō Asanuma, Kana Hanazawa, Ayako Kawasumi, and Romi Park returned from the previous anime as their characters Kyo Sogoru, Ryoko Kaminagi, Shizuno Misaki, and Lu Sheng, respectively.
Masami Shimoda returned from the previous Zegapain anime as director at Sunrise. Katsuhiko Takayama (Aldnoah.Zero, Ga-Rei: Zero, Looking Up At The Half-Moon) penned the film's script. Akihiko Yamashita returned as character designer, alongside other character designers Tatsuya Suzuki and Marie Tagashira, the latter of whom worked as character designer for the new footage in the Zegapain ADP compilation film. Rei Nakahara, Noriyuki Jinguji, Takahiro Yamada, and Hideki Fukushima all returned from the previous anime as mechanical designers. Ayako Ōtsuka also returned to compose the music.
The film has two parts. The first part, titled "Reminiscence Arc," recounts the Zegapain television anime series, and Zegapain ADP (Zegapain Adaptation) compilation film. The second part, titled "Olta Moda Arc," depicts the future after the final episode of the Zegapain TV series. The "Olta Moda Arc" is named after a "new force" in the Zegapain world.
