Gundam SEED FREEDOM Anime Film Unveils More Cast

The staff for the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed FREEDOM film project unveiled more cast members and their characters' visuals on Tuesday.

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From the left to right in the image above, the newly announced cast members and their characters are:

• Kentarō Tone as Liu Shenqiang
• Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Daniel Harper
• ??? as Griffin Arbalest
• Hiro Shimono as Orphee Lam Tao
• Yukari Tamura as Aura Maha Khyber
• Sumire Uesaka as Ingrid Tradoll
• Misato Fukuen as Redelard Tradoll
• Yūichi Nakamura as Shura Serpentine

The staff has not revealed the cast member for the character Griffin Arbalest. Many of these new characters appeared in the second promotional video in August — notably, Aura sitting on a throne next to Orphee and Shura:

Shimono will join other cast members at the "Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Festival ~Connect Ano Toki o Koete~" event on November 19 at the Bunkyō Civic Hall in Tokyo.

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The cast, which features returning and new members, also includes:

• Sōichiro Hoshi as Kira Yamato
• Rie Tanaka as Lacus Clyne
• Akira Ishida as Athrun Zala
• Nanako Mori as Cagalli Yula Athha (replacing Naomi Shindoh)
• Kenichi Suzumura as Shinn Asuka
• Maaya Sakamoto as Lunamaria Hawke
• Fumiko Orikasa as Meyrin Hawke
• Kotono Mitsuishi as Murrue Ramius
• Takehito Koyasu as Mu La Flaga
• Tomokazu Seki as Yzak Jule (or Joule)
• Akira Sasanuma as Dearka Elsman
• Houko Kuwashima as Agnes Giebenrath
• Ayane Sakura as Toyah Mashima
• Houchu Ohtsuka as Alexei Konoe
• Jun Fukuyama as Albert Heinlein
• Michiko Neya as Hilda Haken
• Taiten Kusunoki as Herbert von Reinhard
• Junichi Suwabe as Maas Symeon

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The film will open in Japan on January 26, 2024. The story is chronologically set in C.E. (Cosmic Era) 75.

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed director Mitsuo Fukuda is directing the film at Bandai Namco Filmworks. Fukuda also co-wrote the script along with his late wife Chiaki Morosawa and Liu Goto. Hisashi Hirai (Mobile Suit Gundam Seed) is designing the characters.

Other staff members include:

• Mechanical Design: Kunio Okawara, Kimitoshi Yamane, Kazutaka Miyatake, Junichi Akutsu, Manabu Shintani, Shiba Zen, Takuya Io, Hiroyuki Taiga
• Mechanical Animation Director: Satoshi Shigeta
• Color Key Artist: Akemi Nagao
• Art Directors: Shigemi Ikeda, Yukiko Maruyama
• CG Directors: Mitsuhiro Sato, Kensuke Kujida, Tomohiro Fujie
• Monitor Works: Azusa Tamura, Jirō Kageyama
• Compositing Director of Photography: Takeshi Katsurayama, Shigenori Toyooka
• Editing: Yukiko Nojiri
• Sound Director: Sadayoshi Fujino
• Music: Toshihiko Sahashi

The film project is part of the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Project ignited initiative, which was announced in 2021. The initiative commemorates the 20th anniversary of the original Mobile Suit Gundam Seed anime in 2022, and it has several parts. The initiative also includes a new Mobile Suit Gundam Seed game and the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Eclipse side-story manga.

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed director Mitsuo Fukuda confirmed that the film is a sequel to the second Gundam Seed television anime, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny.

The first Mobile Suit Gundam Seed television anime aired from 2002 to 2003, followed by Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny from 2004 to 2005. The three-part Mobile Suit Gundam Seed C.E.73: Stargazer anime project followed in 2006. Sony Music Anime Festival '06 announced the planned film project in May 2006.

Chiaki Morosawa, the head scriptwriter for the two Gundam Seed series, passed away at the age of 56 in 2016. She had been collaborating with her husband, who directed both Gundam Seed television series, on the planned Gundam Seed film project. Morosawa had explained in 2008 that the plot for the project was completed, but that she had been ill since the end of the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny sequel in 2005.

Source: Press release