Danica Davidson
October 26, 2024 
Mitsuo Fukuda, whose credits include being the director of Mobile Suit Gundam Seed FREEDOM, noticed that “cancellation” was trending on Japan’s X (Twitter), because some fans were wondering if After War Gundam X had been canceled. Fukuda, being more in the know on these things, decided to share some information online. He started by saying: “The ominous word ‘cancellation’ was trending and I couldn’t help but look at it. By the way, toy anime projects back then were usually canceled if they didn’t run for a year. Cyber Formula and Dendoh were similarly canceled.”
He further stated: “Most of the older works like Gundam and Ideon were developed for toys.”
Then Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny episode director Taiki Nishimura got involved, questioning: “So Cyber_____ was indeed canceled. It didn’t feel that way when I was a high school student watching it…but was that the reason it was later expanded into OVAs?”
Fukuda responded: “Although we didn’t get the numbers from the main sponsors or the stations, we had a lot of fans buying the music and home video releases, so we got clients.”
Some time after this, Fukuda added: “Even though it was ‘canceled,’ it persisted over time because it was interesting. I feel cancellation is fine, but the way it is perceived now is completely different than it was back when anime aimed at children was unimportant.”
Gundam.info gave this description for Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM:
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM Plot
C.E. (Cosmic Era). An era in which there are human beings called Coordinators, born with superior physical and mental abilities thanks to genetic modification, and humans called Naturals who are born naturally. With their respective existence at stake, the ideological clash between Coordinators and Naturals escalated into war using armed force.
Along the way, the Destiny Plan was proposed, which would forcibly assign a role to each individual and create a world free of competition. But amid the fighting, this Destiny Plan was rejected in order to protect humanity’s aspirations and future freedom.
Source: ANN
____
Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
