Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
The series aired in Japan on the terrestrial TV Asahi network. It ran for 49 episodes; beginning on April 7, 1995 and ending on March 29, 1996. It received multiple manga adaptations, as well as video games. Four original video animation (OVA) episodes were produced including a retelling of the series, "Operation Meteor", and a direct sequel, "". In 2010, Sumizawa started writing the novel "", another sequel to the series. While the series fared modestly well in Japan, it found greater success in the United States and popularized the "Gundam" franchise in the West.
History of anime
In the United States, the popularity of "Star Wars" had a similar, though much smaller, effect on the development of anime. "Gatchaman" was reworked and edited into "Battle of the Planets" in 1978 and again as "G-Force" in 1986. "Space Battleship Yamato" was reworked and edited into "Star Blazers" in 1979. The "Macross" series began with "The Super Dimension Fortress Macross" (1982), which was adapted into English as the first arc of "Robotech" (1985), which was created from three separate anime titles: "The Super Dimension Fortress Macross", "Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross" and "Genesis Climber Mospeada". The sequel to "Mobile Suit Gundam", "Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam" (1985), became the most successful real robot space opera in Japan, where it managed an average television rating of 6.6% and a peak of 11.7%.