SD Gundam/Episodes

SD Gundam is a Japan/America co-production, that initially premiered on Cartoon Network's Toonami block in the U.S. for 26 episodes, from September 1, 2003 to October 6, 2003. The series later aired in Japan on TV Tokyo for 52 episodes, from January 7, 2004 to December 29, 2004. SD Gundam's 52 episodes made it the longest Gundam series until the arrival of Gundam Seed.

Unlike previous SD Gundam series, SD stands for Superior Defender. It is a crossover series based on the three SD settings that were used in earlier SD Gundam anime and manga: SD Command Chronicles, a science-fiction-styled militaristic setting; Musha Gundam, a setting with samurai-themed robots; Knight Gundam, a medieval European fantasy-themed setting. It also contains many references and homages to the standard Gundam shows, especially those of the Universal Century, Future Century, and After Colony timelines. In a sharp contrast to the dark nature of most of the other Gundam series, SD Gundam Force is extremely lighthearted, though it does at times get more serious as the series goes on, but it's never as dark as the more "traditional" Gundam series.

SD Gundam was the first Japanese anime to never have VHS releases and all its home video releases are only available on DVD with each DVD having 3 episodes each. Though the final 26 episodes were left unaired on television in America, fans petitioned for the second half to be released, and in 2008 the last 26 episodes were released in an English-dubbed DVD set.