Жапон анимациялық сериалы: «G Gundam» жауынгерлік турнирі

Japanese anime television series

Mobile Fighter G Gundam, also known in Japan as Mobile Fighting Legend G Gundam (機動武闘伝Gガンダム) (and commonly referred to as simply G Gundam), is a 1994 Japanese animated television series produced by Sunrise and the fifth installment in the long running Gundam franchise. The series is set in the "Future Century", where space colonies representing countries have agreed to hold an organized fighting tournament known as the "Gundam Fight" every four years to settle their political differences in place of war. Each colony sends a representative fighter piloting a giant, humanoid mecha called a Gundam to battle on Earth until only one is left, and the winning nation earns the right to govern over all the colonies until the next tournament. The events of G Gundam follow Domon Kasshu, the pilot of Neo Japan's Shining Gundam during the 13th Gundam Fight. Domon's mission is to both win the tournament and to track down his older brother, who is believed to have stolen the mysterious Devil Gundam (AKA the Dark Gundam outside of Japan/Asia) from the Neo Japan government. Commemorating the 15th anniversary of the Gundam brand, G Gundam was produced to reboot the waning popularity of the long running franchise. It is the first Gundam series with a self contained plot set in an alternate calendar era from the original "Universal Century" timeline. Additionally, the show casts aside many of the conventions set by its predecessors and takes many new steps for its franchise, such as a focus on martial arts and decisive, personal duels as opposed to large scale military conflicts. G Gundam was directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa, with its settings and characters significantly influenced by the director's interest in world cinema. The anime's real world locales were drawn from numerous foreign films and were planned using location scouting. G Gundam ran for 49 episodes on Japan's TV Asahi from April 22, 1994, to March 31, 1995. An English language version produced by Bandai Entertainment aired in the United States on Cartoon Network's Toonami block beginning on August 5, 2002. Since its original broadcast, G Gundam has spawned manga, audio albums, video games, guide books, and several lines of scale models. During its conception and Japanese television debut, G Gundam was met with controversy among its production staff, sponsors, and fans because the show takes a wildly different turn from all previous entries in the Gundam universe. However, for that very reason, the series is cited as a milestone in its long running franchise and ultimately proved very popular in the region. Reception for G Gundam has been generally positive in North America. Reviewers praised the primary characters and mecha as unique and stylized, but strongly disagreed on the plot. While some critics enjoyed the bold and campy divergence from the more dramatic social and political undertones traditional of Gundam, others found G Gundams story diffusely shallow, repetitive, or not up to standards set by its anime predecessors.

Unlike previous series in the Gundam franchise which are set in the "Universal Century" timeline, Mobile Fighter G Gundam takes place in an alternate "Future Century" universe. Within this timeline, much of mankind has abandoned a ruined Earth to live in space colonies. The countries on Earth have corresponding colonies just outside the planet's atmosphere. Rather than fight wars for political and social dominance, the colonies agree to hold a "Gundam Fight" tournament every four years. Each country sends to Earth a representative piloting a highly advanced, humanoid mobile fighter called a Gundam. The Gundams compete with one another in one on one battles, under a strict set of rules, until only one fighter remains; the nation represented by the winner earns the right to rule all of space for that period. Under orders from Major Ullube Ishikawa, Domon and his childhood friend and mechanic Rain Mikamura travel from country to country, challenging each one's Gundam while searching for clues to the whereabouts of Kyoji and the Devil Gundam. Having gained possession of the Devil Gundam, Wong secretly plots to revive and control it as his trump card to inevitably maintain his own power over space. Domon and his companions make their way to the battle royale while several truths concerning the Devil Gundam are unveiled. Rain's father, Dr. Mikamura, eventually explains that the Devil Gundam (originally called the Ultimate Gundam) was constructed by Dr. Kasshu to rejuvenate the dying Earth. Jealous of his genius colleague, Dr. Mikamura had Neo Japan's officials attempt to confiscate Kasshu's creation. To prevent the military from using his father's invention for its own agenda, Kyoji fled with and crash landed the Gundam on Earth, where its computer malfunctioned, triggering its malevolent activity. Ullube subsequently had Dr. Kasshu arrested, framed Kyoji as a criminal, and used Domon and Rain as pawns in recovering the Gundam. The series was created to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Gundam franchise, created by Yoshiyuki Tomino in 1979. G Gundam was directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa, known for his work on the Giant Robo and Getter Robo Armageddon original video animations (OVAs). Kimitoshi Yamane acted as a back up mechanical designer and has since worked on Sunrise's acclaimed series Cowboy Bebop and The Vision of Escaflowne. The opening theme "Trust You Forever" by Ushima and the closing theme "Kimi no Naka no Eien" (君の中の永遠) by Takehide Inoue are played for the remaining episodes. Gundam fiction set itself apart from others in the same genre with its dramatic plot devices, morally complex characters, and depictions of the horrors of war. These aspects, combined with its "Real Robot" mecha approach, made Gundam immensely popular for several years. After the broadcast of Victory Gundam beginning in 1993, Imagawa, a young protégé of Tomino, was selected as the director of the next installment in the franchise, titled Polcarino Gundam. However, as Gundam popularity dwindled and sales began to drop by this time, the sponsors forced the creators to reboot the brand with the newly titled Mobile Fighter G Gundam. Conceived as a less realistic "Super Robot" series, Notwithstanding, Imagawa became more supportive of the changes after seeing some impressive, complex designs in G Gundams sponsor created toys. Imagawa thought it was important for creators and sponsors to buy into each other's ideas for the benefit of a product's success. Each episode's introductory narration, provided by the character Stalker, was inspired by American television dramas such as Star Trek and The Twilight Zone. For instance, the alternate name of antagonist Master Asia, Tōhō Fuhai (東方不敗), is named directly after the protagonist of a film of the same title. Some elements in G Gundam were taken from other anime and manga. A key scene at the series midpoint involving the Shining Gundam's gold colored "Super Mode" was inspired by Saint Seiya. Another instance towards the show's climax, where the hero's rivals join him to fight a greater opposing force, was a commonly used motif in Weekly Shōnen Jump comics, most notably Ring ni Kakero. Once this portion of the anime's plot concluded, staff members flew to Hong Kong to research and record for the Neo Hong Kong story arc. Imagawa mentioned that Neo Hong Kong does not possess its own space colony in G Gundam, so he wanted to accurately depict the country as one that continues to thrive on Earth. The designs for Neo Singapore's Ashura Gundam and Neo Malaysia's Skull Gundam were included in the show as winners of contests held by the Kodansha publications Comic BonBon and TV Magazine; Imagawa expressed regret that these Gundams were used as enemy characters since they were designed by young fans of the anime. Around the 40th episode, Imagawa focused on adding a romantic theme into G Gundams narrative. He explained that he was "not good at depicting female characters" when directing and he had not previously "written a 'normal' relationship of man and woman". G Gundam was Imagawa's first attempt at a "love story", though he admitted it took him the entire length of the series demonstrates this point. The show would not reach North American audiences until many years later. Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, a series that succeeded G Gundam on Japanese television in 1995, was first localized in North America by Bandai Entertainment in early 2000. Gundam Wing was a huge success in the United States while being broadcast on the popular afternoon Toonami block of Cartoon Network often beating block stalwarts Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon and was the highest rated program on all of Cartoon Network for a time. In late 2001, Bandai acquired the rights to distribute an English dubbed version of G Gundam with voice casting recorded by Ocean Productions in their Blue Water studio in Calgary, Alberta. The English language version of G Gundam premiered as a free screening at the Sony Metreon Action Theatre in San Francisco on March 30, 2002. G Gundam began airing on Toonami on August 5, 2002. Due to the channel's censorship policies, some edits were made for the broadcast. This mainly involved altering the names of several mobile fighters, such as changing God Gundam and Devil Gundam to Burning Gundam and Dark Gundam respectively. The show was also aired on the channel's "Midnight Run" and as part of its Saturday programming in November 2002. Cartoon Network officially dropped G Gundam from its afternoon schedule the following June. The series has since been re broadcast on the Japanese cable network Family Gekijo and the satellite channel Animax. Bandai Entertainment released G Gundam on DVD in North America in four box sets and in twelve separate volumes (each disc containing four to five episodes). The DVDs contain both the English dubbed and Japanese subtitled versions, as well as extras such as production notes from the director. The first three volumes and first box set were released on November 5, 2002. The second box set and next three volumes were released on February 4, 2003. The third box set and next three volumes were released on April 22, 2003. The final box set and last three volumes were released on June 17, 2003. Bandai re released the series as part of its "Anime Legends" label in two larger collections on May 9 and June 27, 2006. G Gundam has had similar DVD releases in Japan; a collection containing the entire series was placed on sale October 27, 2010. G Gundam has further been made available on various video on demand services including Amazon Instant Video, the broadband access site Bandai Channel, and Bandai's official GundamInfo YouTube channel. Due to the closure of Bandai Entertainment, the series has been out of print. On October 11, 2014, at their 2014 New York Comic Con panel, Sunrise announced they will be releasing all of the Gundam franchise, including G Gundam in North America though distribution from Right Stuf Inc., beginning in Spring 2015. On March 29, 2017, Crunchyroll began streaming the series on their website. Right Stuf will release the series on Blu ray and DVD in 2018.

A large amount of printed fiction related to Mobile Fighter G Gundam has been published since the original Japanese airing of the series. The first was a manga adaptation of the show, illustrated by Kōichi Tokita and serialized in Kodansha's Comic BonBon from April 1994 to April 1995. Three bound volumes (tankōbon) collecting the individual chapters were released by Kodansha between October 6, 1994, and May 6, 1995. During the airing of the TV series in North America, Tokyopop acquired the rights to publish an English translated version of the manga. All three volumes were released between June 17 and October 7, 2003. A light novel adaptation of the TV series by Yoshitake Suzuki was published in three books by Kadokawa Shoten under its Sneaker Bunko label between August 29, 1995, and March 1, 1997. In addition to the adaptations, a plethora of one shot side stories and spin offs to the main plot that have been published in various Japanese magazines. Two manga were serialized in certain editions of Kodansha's Comic BonBon. The first was a side story titled Kidō Butōden G Gundam Gaiden Shōryū Densetsu (機動武闘伝Gガンダム外伝翔龍伝説), detailing Sai Sai Ci's journey to improve his fighting skills after losing to Domon in the 13th Gundam Fight finals. The manga was written and illustrated by Toshiya Murakami, serialized from December 1994 to April 1995 and released as a tankōbon on June 6, 1995. The second was a prequel story titled Kidō Butōden Gaiden Gundam Fight 7th (機動武闘外伝ガンダムファイト7th), telling of a young Master Asia's participation in the 7th Gundam Fight. Authored by Kitarou Ototoi, this manga was serialized from March to December 1996 and released in tankōbon form on January 8, 1997. From 2010 to 2016, Kadokawa Shoten's Gundam Ace magazine serialized a 26 volume G Gundam manga retelling written by series director Yasuhiro Imagawa and illustrated by the show's character collaborator Kazuhiko Shimamoto with his associated Honō Production studio. The second part, subtitled Shinjuku Tōhō Fuhai! (新宿・東方不敗！), was serialized from September 26, 2011, to January 26, 2013; eight tankōbon were released from December 26, 2011, to July 26, 2013. A third part, subtitled Bakunetsu Neo Hong Kong! (爆熱・ネオホンコン！), was serialized from February 26, 2013, to 2015; seven tankōbon volumes were released from July 26, 2013, to August 26, 2015. A fourth and final part, subtitled Saishū Kessen hen (最終決戦編), was serialized from 2015 to August 26, 2016; four tankōbon volumes were released from August 26, 2015, to September 26, 2016.

A total of four soundtrack albums containing the background and vocal music of Mobile Fighter G Gundam were released during the show's original television run in Japan. All of them were republished by Starchild on March 5, 1999. The first album, Round 1 & 2, is two discs of music.

Bandai has published three Japan exclusive fighting video games based solely on Mobile Fighter G Gundam. The first game, developed by Pandora Box for the Super Famicom, was released on December 27, 1994. The second game, also developed by Natsume, was released for the PlayStation on October 10, 2002, as the 12th volume of the Simple Characters 2000 series. The third game was released for mobile phones supported by Japan's i mode and FOMA services on November 6, 2006. In addition, characters and mecha from G Gundam have appeared in various Gundam crossover games such as Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space, the SD Gundam G Generation series, the Dynasty Warriors: Gundam series, and Banpresto's Super Robot Wars franchise, among others.

Bandai has marketed a large amount of collectible merchandise based on G Gundam in both Japanese and North American territories. This includes plastic model kits ranging from 1:144 to 1:60 scales; expensive garage kits made from resin; and action figures, some of which are exclusive to North America. Numerous guide/art books relating to G Gundam have been published. and Mobile Fighter G Gundam Complete Record (機動武闘伝Gガンダム 完全収録ガンダムファイト) released in June 1995. Another book, Gundam Wars 4 Fighting G: Model Graphix Special Edition (ガンダムウォーズ4 ファイティングG―モデルグラフィックス スペシャル・エディション), was published by Dai Nippon Kaiga Co. in September 1995. Rapport released an art book titled Mobile Fighter G Gundam: Battle Memory (機動武闘伝Ｇガンダム　バトルメモリー) in 1994. Hobby Japan published a book in its Gundam Weapons series in July 2002, dedicated to collecting and building scale models based on the show. An English language guide book, Mobile Fighter G Gundam Technical Manual, was released by Tokyopop in North America on November 12, 2002. The Japanese clothing company Cospa sells officially licensed apparel featuring G Gundam.

Mobile Fighter G Gundam received mediocre television ratings during its run on Japanese television in 1994 and 1995. According to Nikkei Business Publications, the series saw an average of just 4.02% viewership for the Kantō region and Greater Tokyo Area throughout its 49 episode run. The overall ratings for G Gundam were higher than that of the previous series Mobile Suit Victory Gundam and slightly lower than the following series Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. Critically, G Gundam was met with some controversy upon its Japanese debut. G Gundam replicates very little of the dramatic, militaristic conventions of prior Gundam series, setting itself apart with a different tone; taking place outside the franchise's main timeline; and foregoing large scale, armed conflicts in favor of tournament style, martial arts matches. Early in the show's North American run, Bandai reported that G Gundam had the top ratings of any anime show for the period. The company considered the show to be a "hit" at the time. However, officials for Toonami recounted in 2006 that no Gundam series earned significant viewer ratings after the first North American airing of Gundam Wing in 2000. and "one of the biggest mis steps in anime history" due to its elimination of such serious subtext. Both Bamboo Dong of the Anime News Network Derrick L. Tucker of T. H. E. M. Anime Reviews called the series' episodic storyline its "most profound weakness", whereby "the narrative exists to move the viewer from fight to fight". Simmons concluded that the addition of components like "nanotechnological plagues, evil armies, zombie legions, betrayal, and heartbreak [ ] make the end result entertaining for more sophisticated viewers as well as for youngsters enticed by the colorful shiny robots".