Mobile Girls

Mobile Girls (Japanese: モバイルガールズ; Hepbern: Mobairugāruzu) is a Japanese anime franchise produced by Sunrise in association with Nickelodeon Japan. Despite being a parody of Sunrise's own Gundam franchise, the series is regarded as one of the few original properties from Nickelodeon Japan to be distributed by Aura Television Productions outside of Japan as of 2018. Series within the anime franchise are often aired on Nickelodeon Japan before being syndicated to various other anime networks.
==Plot==
The franchise's setting is the fictional country of Izuni, a relatively remote yet technologically-advanced island, which isn't recognized by any other nation in the world. The main characters of each installment are typically named after various mecha from the Gundam franchise, and are consistent through each subsequent installment of their continuity.
===Mobile Girls/Mobile Girls (2001)===
Ten girls, named after various mecha from the Gundam franchise, are about to go on summer break when suddenly their city (or, in Mobile Girls 2K, the fictional country of Izuni) is taken over by alien forces. Frustrated that their vacation is ruined, the girls join forces and begin calling themselves "Mobile Girls" while trying to protect Izuni from the aliens that invaded it.
===Mobile Girls X===
After defeating the various alien forces that invaded their city, the Mobile Girls are tasked with a new mission: to defeat the alien invaders outside Izuni. Forced to use even more of their summer to battle them, the Mobile Girls start using a power upgrade to continue defending Izuni from alien forces.
===Magic Mobile Girls/Magic Mobile Girls 2K===
Five girls, named after various non-canon mecha from the Gundam franchise, are about to go back to school when suddenly Izuni is invaded by hostile robots and their school destroyed. Frustrated at the robots, the five stumble upon a gem that turns them into magical girls to help them defend Izuni from the hostile robots.
===Mobile Girls Y===
After defeating the various alien forces that posed more of a threat to Izuni, the Mobile Girls are tasked with defeating hostile robots appearing in Izuni. The Mobile Girls start using another power upgrade to aid them in defending Izuni from the robots.
===Magic Mobile Girls: Where Are They Now?===
After defeating the various hostile robots that invaded Izuni, the Magic Mobile Girls have disbanded and are living almost-normal school lives. However, after a mishap causes them to revert to their magical girl aliases, the Magic Mobile Girls must now find a way to disband for good and go back to normal.
===Mobile Girls 2K===
Ten girls are about to go on summer vacation, when suddenly they get an idea of becoming "Mobile Girls" from watching an anime (the first Mobile Girls series). The minute they do, however, various forces from hostile robots to alien invaders start showing up in Izuni, which forces them to defend Izuni from any invading force.
===Mobile Girls ZX===
After defeating the various hostile robots which invaded Izuni, the Mobile Girls are tasked with defeating the last of the alien invaders which have shown up in Izuni. Unfortunately, the invaders have split up and tried to take over all of Izuni, forcing the Mobile Girls to go towards all twelve provinces of Izuni to defeat the invaders.
===The End of Mobile Girls?===
As the Mobile Girls and Magic Mobile Girls disband and live together in a house built for all Mobile Girls, an 8.0 earthquake almost destroys Izuni, followed by other natural disasters over the course of the six episodes, until Izuni is completely destroyed by a wildfire.
===Mobile Girls 2K19===
Ten girls, named after various mecha from the Gundam franchise, are about to go on summer break when suddenly Izuni is invaded by giant robots. Frustrated that their vacation is ruined, the girls join forces and begin calling themselves "Mobile Girls" while trying to protect Izuni from the robots that invaded it.
==List of anime series==
*Mobile Girls (1998 - 1999)
*Mobile Girls X (1999)
*Magic Mobile Girls (1999)
*Mobile Girls Y (1999)
*Magic Mobile Girls: Where Are They Now? (OVA, 1999)
*Mobile Girls 2K (2000)
*Magic Mobile Girls 2K (2000)
*Mobile Girls (reboot) (2001 - 2002)
*Mobile Girls ZX (2002)
*The End of Mobile Girls? (2006)
*Mobile Girls 2K19 (in production; slated for 2019)
==List of outsourced projects==
*Mobile Girls: The Movie (film; 2011)
*Mobile Girls 2 (film; 2013)
==Production==
In 1996, a pilot episode of Mobile Girls was produced using only 10 animators from Studio Comet. Though not aired on television, it was licensed in 1999 by Enoki USA, who gave a list of suggested name changes. However, when Bandai Entertainment licensed Mobile Girls, they decided to keep the original Japanese names.
The series was picked up by Viacom International Media Networks to be developed into a Nickelodeon Japan anime in 1997. Production took 3 months per episode and cost $123,000 USD per episode.
===English localization===
In 2000, Bandai Entertainment licensed Mobile Girls, and began to search for voice actors for the lead characters. The dub was eventually outsourced to Nickelodeon Animation Studio after Bandai failed to contact several professional voice actors for the dub.
Dubbing took up to 3 days per episode, with the episode being aired in the UK three weeks later.
For Mobile Girls 2K19, NickFamily Studios moved production of the dub to its in-house facilities while also outsourcing voice work to both NickFamily Toronto in Canada and Jetix Cymru in Wales. The dub of Mobile Girls 2K19 would also be the first Mobile Girls dub not recorded at any Nickelodeon-owned facility.
===Film adaptation===
In 2008, CBS Studios briefly acquired the rights to produce a live-action adaptation of Mobile Girls. Filming took place at Nickelodeon on Sunset in California. In 2010, CBS Studios lost the rights to develop the film, and Warner Bros. picked up where CBS Studios left off. Warner Bros. opted to use the footage recorded at Nickelodeon on Sunset, whilst also using animation outsourced to Sunrise. The film was released theatrically on April 15th, 2011. Televised broadcasts were initially on Freeform and Disney Channel until 2018, when they were reverted to Time Warner (now WarnerMedia) for broadcast on TNT.
A sequel was announced in May 2011, with filming once again taking place at Nickelodeon on Sunset in California. The sequel was released theatrically in May 2013. Though the budget of both films was made back, the two films underperformed at the box office.
==Release==
The Mobile Girls franchise has aired on Nickelodeon for the entirety of its Japanese run, not including the 6-episode OVA Magic Mobile Girls: Where Are They Now?. In the UK, the anime franchise was aired on Cartoon Network.
Only a few Mobile Girls series have ever been aired in North America, despite the entire franchise receiving an English dub. The following Mobile Girls series that were broadcast in North America were: Mobile Girls 2K, broadcast on Canada's YTV over the summer of 2001, Magic Mobile Girls 2K, broadcast on ABC Family during Jetix in 2005, and the 2001 reboot of Mobile Girls, broadcast on Toon Disney and later Disney XD in the US. In addition, the only Mobile Girls series to have aired on television in both Canada and the US was 2006's The End of Mobile Girls?, ran on YTV and the US Cartoon Network respectively.
The series wasn't available on DVD in Region 1 between 2000 and 2018, though the 2001 Mobile Girls series was streamed on Crunchyroll starting in 2014. In 2018, NickFamily DVD Distribution, upon NickFamily Studios rescuing the license to the entire franchise outside of Japan, announced that it will release individual series to Region 1 DVD in a series-per-month manner, beginning with 1998's Mobile Girls in September 2018 as a part of the franchise's 20th anniversary. The older series began to appear on Netflix on August 17th, 2018, marking the first time that the 90s Mobile Girls series were released in the US. NickFamily DVD Distribution later received the rights to release both films to Region 1 DVD from Warner Bros. Pictures. The series, films, and the OVA would be released on DVD at one installment a month until Mobile Girls 2K19 ends.
On August 17th, 2018, it was announced that every series would be released for streaming through Netflix.
By April 2019, it was announced that Mobile Girls 2K19 has been delayed to June 2019 due to production issues.