Takanori Nishikawa Performs Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom Theme on THE FIRST TAKE

Singer Takanori Nishikawa has recently appeared on episode 405 of the THE FIRST TAKE to perform his latest hit single, “Freedom,” the aptly titled theme song of the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom film. THE FIRST TAKE is a popular Japan-based YouTube channel where they host various musicians to perform any song from their discography in one take. The channel has hosted such artists as LiSA, Aimer, BABY METAL, FLOW, Creepy Nuts, ClariS, Masayuki Suzuki, Daichi Miura, Harry Styles, and Avril Lavigne. Previously on the channel MAN WITH A MISSION performed Raise your flag, the first cour opening theme song for the Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans and Nami Tamaki performed Gundam SEED‘s “Believe”. Earlier in the month, Nishikawa also performed “WHITE BREATH,” his 1998 single, on the channel.

“Freedom” is performed by Takanori Nishikawa with Tetsuya Komuro (stylized as t.komuro). Takanori Nishikawa has become synonymous with the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED series, performing multiple theme songs throughout its installments under his former stage name T.M.Revolution, such as “INVOKE,” “ignited,” “Meteor,” and “vestige”. Tetsuya Komura is a founding member of TM Network, who performed the iconic “Beyond the Time” for the 1988 Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack film.

In January, “Freedom” earned the #1 spot on Billboard Japan‘s Top 10 for Downloaded Songs, with 16,718 downloads.

On its third weekend in Japanese theaters, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom has become a runaway success, bringing its total to 2,684,435,390 yen with 1,635,481 tickets sold. With a 2.68 billion yen cume, SEED Freedom is now the highest grossing Gundam film, dethroning the 1982 Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space‘s 2.3 billion yen forty-two year, franchise box office record, and the 2021 Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway’s Flash‘s 2.2 billion box office haul.

The tagline of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom is “You are there inside me. Am I there inside you?”. The film is directed by Mitsuo Fukuda, featuring a script by Fukuda, Chiaki Morosawa, and Ryu Goto. Hisashi Hirai returns for character design, while the mechanical design team includes Kunio Okawara, Kimitoshi Yamane, Kazutaka Miyatake, Junichi Akutsu, Manabu Shintani, Zenseava, Takuya Io, and Hiroyuki Taiga. Satoshi Shigeta returns as mechanical animation director. Toshihiko Sahashi is the composer for the film’s music, and the theme song “FREEDOM” is performed by Takanori Nishikawa with Tetsuya Komuro.

Story

In C.E.75, the fighting still continues.

There are independence movements, and aggression by Blue Cosmos… In order to calm the situation, a global peace monitoring agency called COMPASS is established, with Lacus as its first president. As members of COMPASS, Kira and his comrades intervene into various regional battles. Then a newly established nation called Foundation proposes a joint operation against a Blue Cosmos stronghold.