It was no surprise that Bandai Entertainment, which has licensed every previous Gundam series for North American distribution, acquired the rights to Mobile Suit Gundam 00, the latest series in the storied franchise (see “Bandai Preps Gundam 00”), but the fact that the new Gundam series will debut on the Sci Fi Channel’s Monday anime block starting in November does represent a change. With anime on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim now confined to Saturday night, other venues such as the Sci Fi Channel’s Ani-Monday block have assumed greater importance. It a measure of how things have changed in the world of anime on American TV that while the previous Gundam anime series, Gundam Seed, was shown on the Cartoon Network, Gundam 00 is heading to the Sci Fi Channel, which will air two episodes in a row for 13 weeks starting in November.
The Gundam 00 anime series, which was directed by Seiji Mizushima and ran on Japanese TV from October of 2007 to March of this year, was the first entry in the franchise to be animated in high definition and the first that is set in our actual (rather than a totally fictional) time frame. A second season of the Gundam 00 anime is set to debut in
The Gundam 00 series is set on Earth in 2307 A.D. at a time when all fossil fuels have been exhausted and the world is divided into three warring factions, each of which has access to an energy elevator that connects to a vast solar array in space. The Gundam 00 anime follows the adventures of four Gundam Meisters, who join “Celestial Being,” a private paramilitary group attempting to eradicate war and unite humanity.
