Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom (機動戦士ガンダム) is a 2024 Japanese animated military science fiction action film produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks and directed by Mitsuo Fukuda. The film is a sequel to both Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, taking place one year after the events of SEED Destiny. The film features the talents of Sōichirō Hoshi, Rie Tanaka, Akira Ishida, Nanako Mori, Kenichi Suzumura, and Maaya Sakamoto, among others. In 75 C.E., the battle was still on. Independence movements, invasion by Blue Cosmos. In order to calm down the situation, a world peace monitoring organization, Compass, is established with Lacus Clyne as the first president. Soldiers involving Kira Yamato and his friends join the Compass and intervene in battles in various places as members. At that time, the Emerging Countries Foundation proposed a joint operation with Compass against Blue Cosmos headquarters.

The film had been in development since 2006, but production was postponed due to main writer Chiaki Morosawa's health condition. A few years after Morosawa's death in 2016, the film's production started, and it was released on January 26, 2024. The film grossed over US$32 million, becoming the highest-grossing film in the Gundam franchise.

Plot
In C.E. 75, a year after the end of the Second Alliance-PLANT War, remnants of an anti-Coordinator terrorist group, Blue Cosmos, continues to lead several attacks on Earth. Compass, a world peace monitoring organization under Orb Chief Representative Cagalli Yula Athha and Lacus Clyne, was formed to promote peace on Earth and PLANTS, with the latter serving as its president. The organization's mobile suit commander, Kira Yamato, leads his team; Shinn Asuka, Lunamaria Hawke, and Agnes Gibenrath from the battleship Millennium, to destroy the remnants. At a meeting in the PLANTs, Lacus openly admits her hope to end the conflict swiftly and wishes to free Kira from it.

On earth, the government of a breakaway kingdom in Eurasia, Foundation, proposes a joint operation with Compass against Blue Cosmos. Lacus confides with Kira, and both agrees to meet with the government to accept the operation.

The Millennium descends to Earth, accompanied by the battleship Archangel, commanded by Murrue Ramius, and arrives in the kingdom. The government's prime minister, Orphee Lam Tao, and Queen Aura, the leader of Foundation, meet the group. The members of Compass also meets its mobile suit squad, the Black Knights, but the squad rebuffs them with their superiority complex, earning disgusted looks from the group. On the Millennium, Agnes openly flirts with Kira, which Lacus overhears and runs away. Kira attempts to find her but is confronted by Orphee, who affirms that he is a more suitable partner to Lacus than Kira himself.

During the operation, Foundation turns on Compass and the Earth Alliance, with Orphee getting the Black Knights to draw Kira away. Kira's mind gets overtaken by the Black Knights, who lead him to locate and pursue the Blue Cosmos leader. He crosses into Eurasia's territory unknowingly and is attacked in retaliation. Branded as a traitor, Kira is overwhelmed by the Knights. Agnes betrays Compass and assists the Knights in defeating Kira. The Knights launch nuclear missiles from a hijacked Eurasia military outpost to destroy the kingdom and the government headquarters to frame Eurasia. The Archangel is ambushed and destroyed by the Knights, with Shinn also being defeated but is rescued by Hilda. Thanks to the help of Athrun Zala, Meyrin Hawke, and Mu la Flaga, several crewmembers of the Archangel manage to survive the battle; however, Lacus is taken by the Foundation leaders to their base in space.

In the aftermath, Cagalli attempts to mediate between ZAFT and the Earth Alliance but fails; both sides cut ties with Compass, and its activities are suspended. Athrun holds a meeting to reveal Foundation's true objective: to use Lacus and implement a variation of the Destiny Plan, along with revealing the origins of Aura, Orphee, and Lacus, which are part of a new race of enhanced coordinators called the Accords, with Orphee and Lacus genetically designed to be their leaders and rule mankind together. Foundation reveals the repaired Requiem, destroying Eurasia's capital, Moscow for the framed nuclear attack, and gives an ultimatum to the entire world and PLANTs to accept the Destiny Plan and their leadership or be destroyed. Kira breaks down, and Athrun convinces him to rejoin the fight, which he accepts. Compass then receives from Orb new versions of Destiny, Strike Freedom, and Impulse, and heads into space with the Millennium.

Meanwhile, Orphee attempts to seduce Lacus, but she rejects him and continues being a hostage. A coup d'état occurs within ZAFT, and the splinter faction goes to war with the Earth Alliance for fear of the Foundation's retaliation. ZAFT members Yzak Joule and Dearka Elsman escape the coup and join the Eternal to stop the rogue faction after evacuating the leader of the PLANT supreme council. An assault team led by Kira infiltrates Foundation's base on the Artemis asteroid and rescues Lacus. Lacus sends a live broadcast, revealing the Foundation's true motives and condemning their actions.

The Millennium, Eternal, and Orb forces head into battle against Foundation. Orphee sorties with Ingrid in his mobile suit, overwhelming Kira along with Shura, but Athrun saves him and engages the latter with the new version of his Infinite Justice. Yzak, Dearka, the Eternal, and Orb forces suppress the rogue ZAFT fleet as Murrue leads the Millennium in destroying Aura's flagship. Lacus arrives and assists Kira in destroying all of the Foundation's mobile suits and ships. Shinn and Hilda defeat the Black Knights, and Lunamaria disables Agnes. Athrun defeats Shura, and Shinn destroys the Requiem with the help of Lunamaria and Athrun.

Convinced by Lacus and Kira's beliefs about world peace and true love, Orphee and Ingrid accept their defeat, and the war ends. Lacus and Kira descend to Earth on a beach, where they finally share a kiss.

Production
Sunrise announced the film at the Sony Music Anime Fes' 06. It would have been the first original Gundam film since 1991. After the Sony Music Anime Fes' 06, Sunrise announced the film on their website. Houko Kuwashima, the voice actress of character Stella Loussier, has stated on her "SEED Club blog" that the character will somehow also have a role in the film. Lacus, Yzak Joule, and Dearka Elsman will return as members of the PLANT Supreme Council, and Kira, Shinn, and Lunamaria Hawke will be part of the ZAFT military. However, in 2008, writer Chiaki Morosawa explained that the plot was done, but she has been ill since the end of 2004-2005's Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny series. As a result, she asked for the fans' patience. In 2016, it was announced Morosawa died due to aortic dissection. Takanori Nishikawa mentioned at the Gundam 40th Fes. “Live Beyond” concert in 2019 that he was told by a staff member that the film was still in pre-production.

The Bandai Namco Group announced the "Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Project ignited" initiative during the opening ceremony for the life-size Freedom Gundam statue in Shanghai in May 2021. Headlining the initiative is the previously announced film project that serves as a sequel to the television series Destiny. The official website for the film project opened on July 2, 2023, and revealed the film's title and teaser.

Fukuda said the development team for the movie is composed of several returning staff members as well as new ones, aiming to create new technology together. Despite the pressure of the success of the two SEED series, the director looks forward to creating a product that is able to match its predecessors. Fukuda apologized to the fans for the long development hell the film took, as it was originally meant to come shortly after Destiny. He reflected on the unfinished drama left by the protagonists of Kira Yamato, Athrun Zala, and Shinn Asuka and thus wanted to explore such possibilities with Freedom. With the long development, Fukuda also looked forward to using more 3D and facial expressions.

A two-volume novel by Liu Goto was released in Japan. Both volumes had a large reprint. Illustrations are by Tomofumi Ogasawara. Work on the novelization started in 2019. Goto reviewed the plot Morosawa left behind. Aside from that, the novel was a foray into screenplay writing, which he was not familiar with, but he was able to pull through with the "guidance of the director and producers." The feedback apparently ran both ways. Goto does mention that when he was writing for the SEED television series, he found inspiration in foreign dramas he admired, especially those made by sci-fi authors.

Animation
As in previous works, the mecha were created by Kunio Okawara, with the mechanical animation director being Satoshi Shigeta and Fujita Shinmu at the 3DCG production desk. Looking back, Fujita found the two new Rising Freedom Gundam and Immortal Justice Gundam together challenging in the first place. He remade the Immortal Justice several times. At the beginning of production, it was planned that the MS used to create the CG model would only be used for the first half of the movie where the Archangel sinks but as the production of cuts and models progressed, director Fukuda's confidence in CG increased, and even more so for the second half. It was decided that many CG models would be created. Including mobile suits with "breaks," nearly 60 were created. Regarding Zaku Phantom, Fujita only has blaze equipment, but for fun, he added gunner equipment as well. However, it did not really show up. Regarding Akatsuki, At first, it was planned that everything would be drawn, and the CG of the Zeus silhouette would follow the drawn Akatsuki. However, three to four weeks before delivery, the staff feared time limitations and hurriedly created a model for Akatsuki. Archangel took just over a year. Millennium took 1 year and 8 months.

Among the many effects, they put particular effort into the wings of Destiny Gundam, Strike Freedom Gundam, and water landing. Director Fukuda was very particular about the visuals, and Fujita worked on the production passionately. Gouf was halfway through making the CG model. Destiny Impulse Gundam was also scheduled to appear, but the director pointed out that "it would overlap with Destiny," so Impulse was further improved into Impulse Gundam Spec II. M1 Astray was also planned to be made with CG, but it was canceled because there would be no homeland defense this time.

When it comes to special effects, Fukuda cited Top Gun and the Star Wars series as influences. In particular, for cuts that required expressiveness, such as highlights in the play, the CG image was printed frame by frame on paper, and Shigeta directly corrected it before recreating the CG, and so on. A major animation scene that was remade several times was the transformation sequence of Rising Freedom, as the director wanted it to have its own unique feel when compared with previous incarnations of Kira's mecha. Shigeta cited a transformation scene from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, with Fujita expressing relief in retrospect as they could use several colors. The launch of the Destiny Gundam Spec II and the shooting down of the battleship were the result of several visual effects created by the staff together. Fukuda also mentioned he watched recent works as well, e.g., the beam cloak design of Black Knight Squad Dora was a reference to the character design of Tokai Teio in Uma Musume Pretty Derby.

Cast
In contrast to Destiny, where most of the plot focused around Athrun Zala, Fukuda decided that the protagonist of the film would be Kira, leading to the new subtitle Freedom, which serves as one of the main themes of the trilogy and contrasts with Gilbert Durandal's Destiny Plan used in the climax of the previous series. Fukuda finds it challenging to pinpoint what exactly those origins are, but over the course of a year, he has been mulling over how to create a piece that resonates with what they achieved with SEED and Destiny. In that sense, it was a return to their roots in terms of evoking those elements. Finding the concept of staying true to the routes of SEED gave the director major pressure. The CG team is striving to emulate Satoshi Shigeta's artwork. He has also had major inspirations for the handling of Shinn and whether or not the audience will be captivated by him. He felt that the voice actors, Kenichi Suzumura and Akira Ishida, among others, expanded their ranges, improving the characters.

Regarding the character he played at the time, Hoshi said he had just played the grown-up Kira in the movie version, so it felt strange. Kira's growth from repeating Destiny to his visionary appearance in the end was appealing, he said, looking back on Kira's growth. Hoshi said there may be people who have been waiting for a long time, and there are people who have recently learned about SEED and have already arrived at the movie version, but they were also able to finally complete the dubbing. Hoshi was excited that the movie version was finally nearing completion. Hoshi said he had done a lot of lines from SEED and DESTINY so far, but was really happy to see Kira's new lines set two years later. The actor looks forward to seeing what kind of great lines will come out. Fukuda recounts that his wife, late writer Chiaki Morosawa, wanted to do two things in the movie: have a character, more specifically Athrun, punch Kira due to a lack of violence outside mobile suit fights, as well as sink the Archangel. Morowasa did not believe that the story could end properly until the Archangel sank. For the movie, Hoshi played Kira, who is now obsessed with fighting. Across the twenty years he has been voicing the character, he finds him relatable. Meanwhile, Tanaka described Lacus "as at first coming across as floaty, untouchable, and unreadable." For the movie, she decided to compare her with the character of Meer Campbell, as both strive to be perfect. Hoshi was nervous in regards to whether or not the movie would be canceled until the official announcement, as he was glad he would voice Kira again. Tanaka teased an emotional, happy ending that would make the audience cry. Tanaka also expressed a desire to make the movie enjoyable to watch.

On the other hand, Suzumura described his character as cheerful. The director spoke with him before recording, explaining that although Shin is inherently a bright person, the story's scenes suppress that aspect, preventing him from expressing it. Suzumura discussed how destiny reflects the state of things. Reflecting on Shinn's transformation from cheerfulness to seriousness when he became involved in the war, the actor believes Shinn was brave and doing his best. Furthermore, when recording with Takehito Koyasu, who plays Mu La Flaga, Suzumura said, "Even though I'm a senior, I was really happy when a certain Mr. Koyasu complimented me." Among the newcomers, Win Morisaki was excited to be selected to voice a character because of his love for Gundam. Fukuda mentioned that while Destiny portrays Shinn negatively, he is much more lighthearted in the movie, returning to his original kind persona due to his good relationship with Kira. Shinn's former enemy has now become his friendly superior while working at Compass. Meanwhile, Fukuda noted that although Kira often appears as a "mess," his personality is also kind, similar to the current Shinn.

Songs
The main music theme of the film is "Freedom" by Nishikawa and Tetsuya Komuro. Komuro was pleased to be working with Nishikawa for the first time, especially since he had not done music for a Gundam series since Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack. The single release of the song was on January 24, 2024. The ending theme is "Sarigiwa no Romantics" (去り際のロマンティクス) by See-Saw. In addition to using an original illustration drawn by the anime on the jacket, the first production comes in a premium package. Fukuda expressed pleasure when working with See-Saw again, as in Seed and Seed Destiny saying the new song has an emotionally moving melody line, a world-building arrangement, and words that connect the characters' feelings. Chiaki Ishikawa had contacted Fukuda when she was chosen to make the ending song, which gave her confidence since the director informed her about the cast's feelings and how she would be able to create a theme. Yuki Kajiura wrote the lyrics.

Marketing
Promotions included a collaboration with Dune: Part Two in the form of an alternate version of Dune: Part Two's movie poster featuring Lacus and Kira in place of Chani (Zendaya) and Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), respectively. Additionally, inside the Honda booth, the motorcycles "Gold Wing" and "Hawk 11" were on display at the Honda booth at the 2024 Motorcycle Show. Regarding the reason for choosing a motorcycle as the vehicle for the two of them rather than a four-wheeled car, director Fukuda said that cars feel like they move on a single axis or in a flat manner, but motorcycles also have roll movements, so it's more free-flowing. This fits Kira and Lacus, as it symbolizes the freedom that they crave. Fukuda was inspired by his own youth to animate bikes, as he relates them to superheroes like Bari Bari Densetsu. Due to economic reasons, Fukuda could not buy cars, so he saved money for bikes. Though not major in the movie, the bikes Kira and Lacus ride together were hard to animate, but Fukuda still personally drew scenes. In regards to how they work, the gold wing that Kira is riding is a reciprocating engine.

Release
Following three days of its release, Gundam SEED Freedom sold 630,000 tickets and earned 1.06 billion yen (about US$7.20 million), the highest three-day opening ever for a Gundam movie. By the next week, it will have become the highest-grossing Gundam film ever, surpassing Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space in the process with 2.68 billion yen (about US$17.94 million). The film earned a cumulative total of 4,796,455,740 yen (about US$30.65 million) as of May 21. In its final weekend, the movie earned 138,059,550 yen (about US$882,300).

The film and TV series Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury were noted to make the Gundam franchise reach record sales of 145.7 billion yen in the 2024 fiscal year.

In the UK, an initial two-day 23–24 March release was extended until 3 April.

Critical response
Anime News Network scored it a "B+" overall, praising the handling of Kira Yamato and Lacus Clyne's characterizations while acknowledging the animation, especially when mobile suits fight. However, the reviewer criticized the fan service for coming across as divisive and not fitting previous television series. Film Ink praised the focus on romantic relationships despite being primarily a mecha series to the point of addressing what is ideal love and how it reflects the relationship of both the director Fukuda and his late wife, the writer Morosawa. While addressing the fact that the film was primarily made for fans, the reviewer still found it enjoyable from a casual's perspective. Jonathan Lack praised the narrative for focusing on the couple of Kira and Lacus, who appear to be portrayed more seriously and humanly than in Destiny, as their romantic relationship is properly explored in a similar fashion to Fukuda and Morosawa's relationship. While praising the animation for the handling of fight scenes, the writer still felt there were issues with the handling of character designs that might make the previous remasters of Seed and Destiny look more polished.