Release
In February 1980 Mobile Suit Gundam was aired in Italy, the first country to broadcast the show abroad of Japan. It's one of the most appreciated Anime in that country still today, counting multiple fan clubs and a strong market for both home video and Gunpla.
Mobile Suit Gundam was also later aired by the anime satellite television network, Animax, across Japan, with the series continuing to be aired on the network currently, and later its respective networks worldwide, including Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and other regions.
Hoping to capitalize on the success of airing Gundam Wing the previous year, Bandai Entertainment released a heavily edited and English-dubbed version of the series premiering on Toonami across the United States on Monday, July 23, 2001. The series did not do as well as Wing but the ratings were high enough for the whole series to be aired and spawn an enormous toy line. Unfortunately, airing ceased before it could finish. This was due to the September 11th attacks. Immediately following the attacks, Cartoon Network, and many other TV stations, began pulling and editing war-themed content and violent programming. However, the series finale was shown as part of Toonami's "New Year's Eve-il" special on December 31, 2001. It is sometimes stated that Gundam was cancelled "because" of the September 11, 2001 attacks. This was verified by a Toonami producer in a March 4, 2002 interview with Anime News Network.
On Saturday, June 8, 2002, the series was given another chance by Cartoon Network on their late-night Adult Swim block, but it was again pulled before completing its run because of low ratings.
On May 30, 2006, Bandai Entertainment re-released the English dub of the TV series in a 10 volume DVD set. There was no Japanese audio track included, apparently because Yoshiyuki Tomino felt that the original mono mix was in too poor of a condition to use. However, in 2007 the original series was released on DVD in Japan, which sold over 100,000 copies within a month's time from December 21, 2007 to January 21, 2008.
At the 2010 New York Comic Con/New York Anime Festival, Bandai Entertainment announced that they will re-release the Gundam TV series with both Japanese and English dubs. Only one episode out of the 43 episode will not be dubbed, at the request of Yoshiyuki Tomino. Bandai will release the TV series in two sets in summer of 2011. The first set is scheduled for release on September 13, 2011.
In both American TV showings and on the American DVD release, episode 15 ("Kukurus Doan's Island") was cut out. According to Yoshiyuki Tomino, the animation was not up to his usual standards, the episode becoming a "lost episode" of sorts, never being dubbed. The episode remained on the Japanese DVD release.
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Famous quotes containing the word release:
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—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
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—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“The near touch of death may be a release into life; if only it will break the egoistic will, and release that other flow.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)