While Americans may have Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings as cornerstones of toy merchandise, over in Japan the undisputed titan for nerds who love figurine collecting is Gundam. The franchise started out as an anime called Mobile Suit Gundam that premiered on April 7th, 1979. It would be hailed as an instant classic for its realistic settings, focus on political warfare, and characters who could (at times) be morally ambiguous. The series was then edited down into three motion pictures, where the box office success would propel the franchise into pop culture forever.
Soon after TV sequels followed, along with spin-offs and lots of merchandise. Lots and LOTS of merchandise! While this original anime and movies were brought to America early on, it wasn’t until Gundam Wing hit Cartoon Network’s Toonami that the franchise got real exposure in America. It was so popular it even (temporarily) de-throned Dragon Ball Z and Pokemon as the most popular anime in America. Gundam’s huge success was poised to continue the winning streak in America…until a crucial mistake brought the whole thing to a screeching halt.
The Gundam Revolution Comes to America
While Gundam was a huge franchise in Japan, for decades it was something that only underground nerds in America really knew about. As mentioned above, the original trilogy of Gundam movies was brought over to America, but for the most part, general audiences were largely unaware of the franchise. Parent company Bandai Entertainment was always interested in making Gundam a hit franchise in the west, but never really had any luck in selling the show to a wide enough audience to make that plan feasible. Without the potential to merchandise the series in any meaningful way plans to import additional entries in the franchise were stalled.
That is until a little programing block caught Bandai’s eyes: Toonami. Seeing how popular anime was becoming on Toonami, Bandai left the first eight episodes of Gundam Wing with the block programmers, hoping that they would see potential in the series. One man – Jason DeMarco – watched the episodes and immediately loved the series. It not only contained the action sequences that defined Toonami, but it also had a storyline filled with politics, intrigue, and sophistication! It would be Toonami’s first “grown-up” series, and it would be a great way to test airing an anime uncut at midnight (a concept that would be successful enough to pave the way for an entire adult animation block called Adult Swim).
Toonami ordered the series and hyped it up with what many consider one of their best commercials ever. Gundam Wing WOULD be a major hit! Not only did boys love the action sequences (and merchandise sales would attest to it), but the series also managed to attract a sizable female audience as well, with many girls having favorite members of the five Gundam boys and writing fanfiction around the characters. Gundam Wing was poised to finally become the huge hit Bandai wanted it to become. Cartoon Network wanted more, and Bandai was more than happy to provide.
The Tactical Error
Because the original Mobile Suit Gundam is still considered one of the greatest anime of all time (and honestly, from this writer’s perspective you are missing out if you haven’t seen it), Bandai decided that 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, yet there were problems.
Unlike other series running on the block, Mobile Suit Gundam was more than twenty years old and LOOKED like it! Unlike Gundam Wing – which balanced the high-paced action with political intrigue perfectly for teens – Mobile Suit Gundam was more dialog focused with fewer action sequences, so some kids struggled to stay invested. The most unfortunate strike against the series was the life-changing event that would take place a few months later: the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center.
With the world a changed place, a series like Mobile Suit Gundam – which frequently featured guns, overt politics, and terrorist attacks as part of the story – seemed especially insensitive to sell to children in a world that was still hurting from a terrorist attack that killed over 3,000 people. The series was pulled from the air for several months. It would eventually return to Adult Swim but would be pulled before completing the run due to low ratings. Cartoon Network decided they were largely done with Gundam at that point, and another series wouldn’t air until several years later.
Reflecting on Mobile Suit Gundam
When Bandai’s Director of Marketing Robert Napton went on 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 with Mobile Suit Gundam. The series was too old, too sophisticated for a teenage audience, and had troubling sequences as the result of a nationwide tragedy no one at Bandai could have predicted. In hindsight, something like G Gundam would have probably made for a better follow-up, as it featured the Gundam’s in a series that took a LOT of inspiration from another show that was a big hit on Toonami: Dragon Ball Z!
On April 17th, 2004, Cartoon Network would air Gundam Seed. While the series had a mixed reception from critics, with more modern animation, a catchy soundtrack, and protagonists who were much closer to the age of the network’s viewers, the series was embraced more warmly. These days Right Stuf International – through their production label Nozomi Entertainment – has become the main gatekeepers to the Gundam franchise.
They have spent the past several years slowly releasing the series on BluRay (many of them for the first time). Although the franchise never reached the heights Gundam Wing did, it now has a loyal following in America. Oh, and Gundam models are now in almost every comic and toy shop in America. Not a bad long-term outcome for a series that got derailed so badly at one point.
Source: ANNCast