On September 20th, a stage greeting was held at Shinjuku Piccadilly (Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo) for the "limited-time special edition" of the movie version of the popular anime series "Mobile Suit Gundam SEED," "Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM," which features updated footage from the movie. The special edition is the "complete version" with over 500 updated scenes from the movie. The first installment will be screened from September 20th to October 3rd, and the second installment from November 1st to 14th, with different epilogue scenes added to the first and second installments. Director Fukuda Mitsuo said of the updates, "We fixed a lot of things. There were some parts that didn't work out when we showed it in theaters. We picked as many cuts as we wanted (to update) and narrowed it down to just a few, but because it was a hit, we had the budget. We did more than the usual DVD revisions." Director Fukuda explained, "I think you'll be able to tell there are more than 20 cuts even on a first watch. I've fixed both the characters and the mecha. I've also corrected small mistakes in the data. In particular, the final battle scene, and I've fixed both Freedom, Justice and Destiny."
Regarding the added epilogue, he said, "We made it at the last minute. It was about four minutes long, but we cut a lot of it. The script was much longer. We're currently working on the second part in November."
Also appearing on stage were Soichiro Hoshi, who plays Kira Yamato, Kotono Mitsuishi, who plays Murrue Ramius, and Houko Kuwashima, who plays Agnes Giebenrath.
The film was released on January 26th and had a long run of about four months, becoming a huge hit, grossing 4.9 billion yen and attracting over 2.9 million viewers. It has also been talked about as breaking the all-time record for the highest box office income of a Gundam movie in the history of the series for about 42 years, surpassing the 2.3 billion yen recorded by Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space, released in 1982.
The Mobile Suit Gundam SEED series, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, aired from October 2002 to September 2003, and its sequel, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY, aired from October 2004 to October 2005. SEED FREEDOM is a sequel to SEED DESTINY, and reunites the staff of the TV anime, including Director Fukuda. The production of the movie was announced in 2006, but there had been no further news for a long time since then. It was released about 18 years after the announcement.
