Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
"Gundam Wing" was not the first series in the "Gundam" franchise to be dubbed and distributed in the U.S. (the compilation movie version of the original "Mobile Suit Gundam", as well as the OVAs "" and "", preceded it by about two years), but it is well known as the first "Gundam" series to be aired on American television. This dub was produced by Bandai Entertainment and the voice work was done by Ocean Productions. The series aired on Cartoon Network's weekday afternoon after-school programming block Toonami; premiering on March 6, 2000. In the first extended promo leading up to the series' premiere, voice actor Peter Cullen narrated the back story, evoking memories of "Voltron's" opening credits. The promo was said to be so riveting that Bandai decided to use it as the official promo for the series.
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%.